Kate & Mona A Perfect Pair

Co-Founder

Kate Arding

Kate Arding is a co-founder of Talbott & Arding Cheese and Provisions, with more than thirty years of experience in farmhouse cheese. She grew up in Kent and began her career in food at Tracklements, her family's mustard and sauce company, before landing at Neal's Yard Dairy, London's beloved specialty cheese shop. There she worked alongside founder Randolph Hodgson, selling and championing cheeses made by British and Irish farmhouse cheesemakers. During her tenure, Kate established many high-profile accounts, including the Houses of Parliament, Claridges, and Buckingham Palace.

Kate crossed the Atlantic in 1997 to join Sue Conley and Peggy Smith at the launch of Cowgirl Creamery, where she served as Head Cheesemonger and Buyer. From those early days she played a central role in the burgeoning American artisan cheese movement, helping to build what would become one of the country's most beloved cheese businesses.

After leaving Cowgirl Creamery in 2004, Kate spent three years consulting for cheesemakers and farmers on dairy development projects across the globe. Working in East Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, she brought technical knowledge to regions with limited access to modern technology while immersing herself in some of the world's most ancient cheesemaking traditions.

Back in the States, Kate co-founded Culture: The Word on Cheese, America's first magazine devoted entirely to cheese. She worked closely with the editorial team as a contributing writer and photographer and resident cheese expert.

In 2014, Kate and her wife, Mona Talbott, opened Talbott & Arding in Hudson, New York. Kate oversees the day-to-day operations of the business as well as the shop's artisan and farmstead cheese program, the premier collection of its kind in the Hudson Valley.
She was a contributor to and editor of the Oxford Companion to Cheese and has been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, The LA Times, The Times UK and on The Martha Stewart Living Show.

Co-Founder

Mona Talbott

Mona Talbott is the co-founder and culinary director of Talbott & Arding Cheese and Provisions, which she founded alongside her partner, Kate Arding. Her path to the kitchen began in the reforestation camps of British Columbia, where she spent five seasons cooking for crews in the wilderness. In 1993, she refined her craft at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon, graduating with highest honors.

After completing her studies, Mona interned and was then hired to cook at Chez Panisse Cafe.  The Berkeley restaurant, already a celebrated culinary institution, would become foundational to her career.  It was here that she learned an invaluable philosophy that continues to guide her today: the beauty of simplicity and a reverence for provenance.

After five years in Berkeley, she traveled and worked in restaurants in Paris, Bordeaux, and Brittany, France further embracing the straightforwardness of cuisine à la bonne femme.  When she returned to the States, she established herself as a private chef and caterer to a laudable group of clients in New York City.  It was also at this time that she visited and became enchanted by the Hudson Valley.

In 2006, Alice Waters chose Mona to be the Founding Executive Chef of the groundbreaking Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome.  Mona set out to build a kitchen program that would nourish and support the work and conviviality of the Academy’s community while guided by the Roman table—flavorful, seasonal food that spoke of its source.  The purpose of the program was twofold: feed the Academy’s members and use the kitchen as an educational nexus.    

During her five year tenure at the Academy, Mona penned two cookbooks, Biscotti and Zuppe: Recipes from the Kitchen of the American Academy in Rome.  She’s also featured in Coco: 10 World-Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs (Phaidon) and has contributed to the New York Times, Bon Appétit, and Saveur among others.