AFDO 125th Birthday Bash

Join us for a party 125 years in the making! The AFDO 125th Birthday Bash will feature food, fun, and friends while benefitting the AFDO Endowment Foundation. There are multiple registration levels so see which one is right for you. 

We’ll kick off the evening with a cheese and wine/beer tasting.  Go on a humorous and informative journey in the world of cheese with the Cheese Twins and AFDO friends Michael and Charlie Kalish.  Learn more about the Twins:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ge5rX0GvNM.

In this cheese and wine/beer tasting, the Cheese Twins will provide a unique, jaw-dropping account of how to enjoy delicious American artisan cheese with everyday wine and beer. Michael and Charlie will pepper the tasting with accounts of their extraordinary work in Europe, from being gored by cattle at the top of the Swiss Alps to being dusted by cheese mites in a dark subterranean French cave to chasing goats and sheep loose in Spain and Italy. Their story is one of luck and misfortune, hard work and freedom, bitterness and cream – and together they won the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. Yep, just the story of two, ordinary American food safety professionals. If you wear a hat to the tasting, please hold on to it, as it may be blown to the back of your room. 

A list of recommended cheeses, wine and beer can be found below. Our hosts recommend buying at least 3 of the following types of cheese:

• Fresh goat cheese  pairs with   Sauvignon blanc or pinot gris, Kolsch or Hefeweizen (avoid if bitter)
• Mold-ripened cheese (e.g. brie, camembert) pairs with Hard cider, fruity pinot noir
• Washed-rind cheese (e.g. fontina, limburger) pairs with Earthy pinot noir, porter
• Alpine cheese (e.g. gruyere, comté) pairs with Porter, stout, ESB, lager or Pilsner
• Blue cheese (e.g. roquefort, gorgonzola) pairs with Late harvest (dessert) wine

Our networking event will allow you to test your AFDO knowledge and catch up a bit with your AFDO friends.  Not in person, we know, but still fun.

We’ll end the evening with a premiere of the AFDO 125th Anniversary video, produced by AFDO past Executive Director, Joe Corby and based on the book Joe has complied in honor of this milestone event.

Agenda

7:30PM EST – Welcome

• John Young, Principal, Young & Associates

7:35 – 8:20PM EST – There’s a Hole in My Cheese and Other Things to Complain About? A Virtual Cheese and Wine Tasting

• Charlie and Michael Kalish, Lead Instructors, Food Safety Guides

8:20 – 8:40 PM EST – Where’s AFDO Scavenger Hunt – Randomly selected teams will find items of historical significance in AFDO History

• Joe Corby, Senior Advisor, Association of Food and Drug Officials

8:40 – 9:00PM EST – World Premier of “AFDO at 125”

• Joe Corby, Senior Advisor, Association of Food and Drug Officials
• Brooke Benschoter, Director of Communications, Association of Food and Drug Officials

9:00PM EST – Closing Remarks

• Mark Sestak, AFDO President, Deputy Director, Food/Milk/Lodging, Alabama Department of Public Health

AFDO Past Presidents