Cheesemakers Tony and Julie Hook considered quasi-retirement back in 2001. It didn't stick. The owners of Hook's Cheese Company decided to scale back their commodity cheese production in favor of smaller batch artisan cheeses. Tony Hook was working around 25 hours a week before the change in company direction. Now the 73-year-old clocks 80 hours at the creamery each week, crafting dozens of distinctive cheddars, blues, jack styles, and more. The eventual plan is for one of his nephews to take over the business, but retirement is the furthest thing from Hook's mind. "I have younger brothers who've retired...but whatever," he says matter-of-factly.
Hook's is a Wisconsin favorite for artisan versions of classics like Pepper Jack and Hook's Blue. As one Wisconsin seller noted on their label, "it's the sh*t." "We are very blessed," another local responds on Reddit. It's our pleasure at Saxelby Cheese to share these regional gems with a wider audience of cheese lovers. Once you try Hook's Pepper Jack, you won't want anyone else's.
Tony Hook entered the cheese business through a summer job after graduating high school. He wound up hauling milk, cleaning equipment, and helping to make cheese for six years while also attending college, and by the time he got his degree, "[cheese] was the business I knew and that's what I liked to do," he says. In 1976, he and his wife Julie took over the factory for a dairy farmers coop in the city of Mineral Point. This was the birth of the Hook's Cheese Company brand, but the creamery's 1.5 million pounds of cheese a year was mostly sold under grocery store labels or through big national brands. The age of artisan cheese was a few decades away; "50 years ago," Hook explains, "most Wisconsin factories were selling to just a few buyers."
But even in the commodity game, the Hooks cared about quality. Julie Hook got her own cheesemaking license and wound up winning a World Cheese Championship award in 1982 for the company's colby. In 1987, the couple purchased a creamery of their own and brought their farmers with them. Hook's has enjoyed a long relationship with family farms in the area even as small dairies close in droves, unable to compete with larger industrial operations. Some farms have supplied milk to Hook's for 47 years with herds of a few dozen cows as opposed to the hundreds you'll find at the typical Wisconsin dairy farm. "The small dairy farmer is keen on wanting to produce excellent milk for us to make an excellent product," Hook says.
By 2001, there was enough demand for artisan cheese that the Hooks decided it was time for something new. They cut their production by 94%, down to just 100,000 pounds of cheese a year, and built new relationships with smaller buyers that shared their enthusiasm for great cheese. "It's a lot more fun dealing with small distributors who like artisan products, as opposed to just shipping commodity cheese that's labeled as store brand," Hook says. The company started releasing long aged experimental cheddars that they had been storing for 10, 15, and even 20 years. By the early 2010s they expanded their roster to different kinds of milk, making cheeses like Ewe Calf to Be Kidding, which is a mixed milk blue that combines the best of cow, goat, and sheep milks in a fruity and peppery package.
Hook's currently makes 75 kinds of cheese with a staff of eight people. Two cheesemakers join Tony and Julie in the creamery and the company has grown their output to 500,000 pounds of cheese a year—impressive for an artisan creamery, but still a third of what they made in the commodity days. Wisconsin is one of the only American states with a Master Cheesemaker program, and Tony Hook earned certifications for blue cheese and cheddar in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The programs are essentially graduate degrees in cheesemaking, requiring 10 years of hands-on cheesemaking experience before someone is qualified to apply. It's a tribute to the Hook family's dedication to cheese that 10 years is just a fraction of their career in Wisconsin dairy. The business of small farming and artisan cheese depends on enduring, sustainable makers like the Hooks, and they plan to enrich Wisconsin's cheese culture for decades to come.
Taste Hook's Pepper Jack from Hook's Cheese Company, and sign up to be notified when new batches of Hook's Blue and Ewe Calf to Be Kidding are back in stock!
Creamery photo courtesy of Hook's Cheese Company.
