If you ask him about the state of Mexican-style cheeses in the United States, Arturo Nava will tell you that “Hispanic cheeses are where Italian cheeses were 30 years ago.”
In the ’90s, thanks to cookbook authors and TV hosts like Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali, increased interest among general audiences in authentic regional Italian cooking heralded an influx of Italian cheeses to American grocery stores. While home cooks used to have to visit specialty stores for varieties like Taleggio, Fontina and burrata, those items are now often found at supermarkets alongside bagged shredded mozzarella and powdered “shaker” Parmesan.
According to Nava, who is the senior marketing director for Hispanic Cheese Makers-Nuestro Queso in Kent, Ill., all signs point to a similar explosion in interest in cheeses like cotija, Oaxaca, panela, queso blanco, queso fresco, queso de freír and queso quesadilla.
“Mexican-style and Caribbean-style authentic cheeses have been growing double digits for a few years now, while the overall cheese category growth is flat,” he told Salon Food.
Several factors are contributing to this increase in demand, all of which are underscored by shifting demographics in the U.S. The 1990 Census tallied 4.3 million immigrants from Mexico, while in 2021, there were 10.7 million Mexican-born individuals living stateside, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
“Mexican-style and Caribbean-style authentic cheeses have been growing double digits for a few years now while the overall cheese category growth is flat.”
As Bill Esparza wrote for “Roads & Kingdoms” in 2017, Mexican food in America has been shaped by waves of immigration, resulting in almost innumerable examples of regional Mexican-American cuisines built from — or in spite of — American ingredients and limitations.
“At home, pochos brought in their own traditions, even as they began to cook American dishes, resulting in a uniquely Mexican-American cuisine,” Esparza…
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