Sue Conley is the co-founder of

Cowgirl Creamery Cowgirl Creamery is a company located in Petaluma, California, which manufactures artisan cheeses. Founded in 1994, the company manufactures its own cheeses and sells other imported and domestic cheese and fine artisan foods. Its own cheeses inc ...

along with Peggy Smith. Both women are credited with their roles as catalysts of Northern California's artisan cheese industry. In 2006, along with Smith, she won a

James Beard award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

for "significant and lasting achievements and contributions to the food and beverage industry for ten or more years."

Early life

Conley was born in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where her grandfather managed the cafeteria Sholl's Colonial. She attended the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

, where she met Smith.

Work

After moving to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

in 1976, Conley worked in restaurants before co-founding Bette's Oceanview Diner. After selling her shares in Bette's Oceanview Diner, she co-founded Tomales Bay Foods, a distributor and marketer of West Marin-produced foods, and Cowgirl Creamery, a manufacturer and distributor of artisan cheese, along with Smith. Conley has credited her travels to Europe as well as Peggy Smith's work at Chez Panisse as amplifying their interest in regional, artisan food production. According to Conley, they founded the cheese-making company as a way of creating a product which showcased the organic milk produced by Albert Straus at Straus Family Creamery: "We saw the need to showcase great quality organic milk. The farm economy could not survive the state it was in, so we saw a need to preserve land in agriculture." Conley is a member of the California Artisan Cheese Guild. With Smith, she wrote ''Cowgirl Creamery Cooks''. In 2016, Conley and Smith sold Cowgirl Creamery to Emmi, a Swiss dairy firm.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conley, Sue Living people Date of birth missing (living people) People from Washington, D.C. University of Tennessee alumni Cheesemakers 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American artisans Dairy products companies in California Year of birth missing (living people)