Matt Jennings: Chef & Cheesemaker

These 40 up-and-comers—all 40 years old or younger—are changing the way Americans eat and drink, from a vodka distiller who rewrote Nebraska's Prohibition-era laws to a White House chef who's fiercely fighting to improve school-lunch programs.

Matt Jennings: Chef & Cheesemaker

Photo © Kate Kelley.

Lots of chefs make their own ricotta or chèvre, but few have gone as far or as deep as Matt Jennings, 34. Not only does he run an excellent cheese shop (Farmstead) and a bistro (La Laiterie) in Providence, Rhode Island, he also regularly collaborates with small farms on experimental cheeses. He worked with Dancing Cow Farm on its famed washed-rind Sarabande and innovates with other cheeses on his own, like dunking a wheel from a Wisconsin creamery in Belgian ale and wrapping it in hay.

Plus Go to the Farmstead website

Plus Go to the La Laiterie Bistro website