The Ricotta that Put Maine on the Map

Crooked Face Creamery’s Award-Winning Approach

Long before Crooked Face Creamery earned international acclaim, it began with something quieter: a respect for ingredients and a commitment to doing things well, by hand. Helmed by cheesemaker Amy Rowbottom, the Skowhegan shop brings that philosophy to life through a distinctly Maine approach to cheesemaking.

Each batch starts with whole milk sourced from nearby Springdale Farm in Waldo, paired with a short list of carefully chosen ingredients. Many cheeses are cold-smoked for added depth, resulting in an exceptionally creamy texture and rich flavor. The process is guided as much by instinct and experience as by technique.

That balance of craft and care has not gone unnoticed. Crooked Face Creamery garnered global recognition at the 37th annual World Cheese Awards, the largest and most prestigious cheese-only competition in the world. They took home a Super Gold award—one of the highest honors, identifying the top 1 percent of over 5,000 global entries—for their Plain Whole Milk Ricotta and a Bronze for their Applewood Smoked Ricotta (which also earned the top spot on Food & Wine’s list of 25 Essential American Cheeses to Try Right Now).

Located inside the Maine Grains building in downtown Skowhegan, the storefront doubles as both a cheese shop and a provisions store, with shelves stocked not only with their own products but also with locally made pastas, jams, pickles and crackers. You’ll often find in-store-only offerings, such as experimental cheeses, which makes assembling a cheeseboard less about following a prescribed pairing and more about the art of discovery.

Here, new flavor ideas come just as much from conversation as much as creativity. When asked about recent offerings, Rowbottom points to a collaborative, iterative process shaped by her team and inspired by the community. “This season, with the help of my very creative employee Erika Noone, we released two new flavors of our Ricotta: the Lemon Fennel Ricotta and the Lavender Citrus Ricotta Mousse,” she says. “They are both so bright and fun, they pair well with fresh fruit–specifically poached pears, which we just recently enjoyed as a dessert at a farm to table dinner in Belfast hosted by Salvatore and Roscia.”

Products are introduced thoughtfully, with equal attention to creativity and viability. “I lean heavily on Erika’s creative genius when it comes to new flavors and pairings,” she says. “We usually talk about the idea, do some small trial batches, sample it out at our shop and if we get a positive response, we launch the new flavor.”

At the heart of Crooked Face Creamery is a growing awareness among customers about where their food comes from and who is behind it. “Customers love to shop small and buy from someone they know and trust,” says Rowbottom. “It’s a great privilege and we take a lot of pride in all the products and farmers we represent here and do our best to do their products justice in how we talk about them.”

Like many of Maine’s cheesemakers, Rowbottom’s work sits at the intersection of land, labor and community. The cheeses themselves may be simple in composition, but they carry a deeper story of collaboration, seasonality and a place where craft is both a livelihood and a way of staying connected.