Great news, cheese fans: We have something to celebrate. Franklin Peluso has resumed making his incomparable Franklin’s Teleme after a five-year pause. Peluso lost his production space in late 2018 (landlord troubles), and for a long while I feared we would never see this California classic again. This third-generation cheesemaker is 78, after all, and entitled to throw in the towel given how many location leads failed to pan out. When he called me recently to tell me Teleme’s rebirth was imminent, I felt like kissing the phone. Even better, he told me that his son, Adam, was working alongside him, assuring a future for this one-of-a-kind cheese.
Franklin’s grandfather, Giovanni Peluso, developed the Teleme recipe nearly a century ago. His Peluso Cheese Company in the San Joaquin Valley served the state’s large Italian community, and it’s likely that Teleme was his attempt to create a cheese akin to Stracchino or Crescenza. Giovanni dusted the floppy squares with rice flour, possibly to mimic the delicate crust on those soft Northern Italian cheeses. The origin of Teleme’s name remains a mystery, although there are cheeses with similar names in Greece and Turkey.
About 20 years ago, Franklin sold the Peluso Cheese Company, moved to Maine and started making Teleme there. But his wife and kids couldn’t tolerate the cold, so within nine months the family was back in California. Franklin quickly returned to cheesemaking, christening his product Franklin’s Teleme because he no longer had rights to the family name. (Peluso Cheese still makes Peluso Teleme.) For the decade or so that he made cheese before pausing, Franklin’s Teleme was, in my view, the Teleme to buy.
And now, finally, it’s back. I confess that I was anxious about tasting it. Would it be the soft, slumpy, pudgy pillow I remembered? Franklin assured me he had not altered his methods, but he had a new milk source and a new facility and those are not small changes.
I’ll cut to the chase. The “new” Teleme has every loveable quality I recall from before: a milky, yeasty aroma, buttery flavor and gentle crème fraiche tang. A fat, floppy slice from the 6-pound square looks like bread dough, with an open, yielding texture like no other cheese I know.
For my fellow curd nerds who appreciate these details, Franklin’s Teleme is a lightly cooked, gently pressed, washed-curd cheese. At about four days old, the squares are floured, wrapped in heavy paper and refrigerated. They’re released at about two weeks, when they are semisoft, sliceable and delicate in flavor. Over the next three to four weeks, an uncut square will get softer, even runny, and develop a more pronounced taste. I love it at every stage.
If possible, purchase this cheese from a store that cuts it to order. If you have any leftover (not an issue at my house), store it in a lidded plastic container; it suffers in plastic wrap. Serve it with cracked black pepper and maybe a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. It’s sublime on polenta with roasted tomatoes or on a toasted sandwich.
Next-gen Teleme: Franklin and Adam Peluso
Please be patient as Franklin and Adam ramp up production. They are working in a rented Modesto creamery and currently producing only 60 squares a week. But they intend to purchase a larger pasteurizer and expand their output. A website offering e-commerce is also in the works.
What a relief to know this historic recipe is passing into capable young hands. Adam has assisted his dad with the Teleme since childhood and, says Franklin, “I hope in two years he’s the only one making it.”
For now, look for Franklin’s Teleme at these California stores: Berkeley Bowl West (Berkeley), Bianchini’s (Portola Valley and San Carlos), Big John’s (Healdsburg), Cheese Board Collective (Berkeley), Cheese Central (Lodi), Diablo Foods (Lafayette), Eureka Natural Foods (Eureka), Market Hall Foods (Oakland), Molinari Deli (SF), North Coast Co-op Arcata), Nugget Markets (multiple locations), O’Briens (Modesto), Oliver’s Market (multiple locations), Petaluma Market (Petaluma), Rainbow Grocery (SF), Shopper’s Corner (Santa Cruz), Star Grocery (Berkeley), Sunshine Foods (St. Helena), Taylor’s Market (Sacramento), V. Sattui (St. Helena) and Woodland’s Market (Kentfield).