{"id":37819,"date":"2020-01-27T20:36:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T01:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=37819"},"modified":"2021-08-24T14:56:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T18:56:49","slug":"my-day-as-a-judge-at-the-cheesemonger-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/my-day-as-a-judge-at-the-cheesemonger-invitational\/","title":{"rendered":"My Day as a Judge at The Cheesemonger Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I turned yet another corner in search of the entrance to <\/span>The Midway<\/span><\/a>, home to <\/span>The Cheesemonger Invitational<\/span><\/a> for the second year in a row, I wondered what I was walking into. The RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race of cheese challenges? The Great British Bake Off of curd competitions? It was 10 a.m. and honestly, I hadn\u2019t had enough coffee to be prepared for either possibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

I stepped into the venue and instantly felt the \u201c<\/span>adrenaline-pumping cheesesplosion\u201d I\u2019d been promised. It was electric. Mongers buzzed around me, already engaged in the day\u2019s tasks. They\u2019d arrived hours prior to begin the written portion of the competition: a series of three tests including one cheese exam, one meat quiz, and a blind taste test in which they\u2019d needed to correctly identify the cheese name, milk type, country of origin, and pasteurization status without any clues or visual indicators. Suuuper easy, piece of cake… Just kidding. (I think I teared up multiple times whilst grading these tests out of sheer admiration for those who\u2019d taken them. Lots of these questions were really hard, y\u2019all!)<\/span><\/p>\n

Once finished with the written portion, the mongers moved on to a series of technical exams that I most certainly would\u2019ve failed. I watched with the other judges\u2014many of whom were past CMI winners and participants\u2014as the competitors moved through the veritable cheese obstacle course stretched across multiple 6-foot tables. The first technical challenge was the \u201c1\u20444 lb. Cut,\u201d in which contestants had 45 seconds to cut two quarter-pound pieces of cheese from one whole wheel, only weighing the wheel once before making the first cut. Next up, the \u201cPaper Wrap,\u201d in which mongers had to neatly wrap and sticker the two pieces from their cut round with cheese paper. The cheese needed to be wrapped to \u201corigami-like perfection\u201d for a perfect score and once again, the mongers had 45 seconds to do so. \u201cGlass Wrap\u201d was the third and final portion of the technical, and probably the most intense to watch. Mongers were instructed to wrap a \u215b and \u00bc wheel in plastic wrap so that it resembled \u201ccheese dipped in glass,\u201d all while judges, fellow competitors, and our fearless leaders (<\/span>Adam Moskowitz<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Lilith Spencer<\/span><\/a>, I\u2019m talking about you) cheered them on. And yet, even under all this pressure, the atmosphere in the room was downright euphoric. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By noon, folks had completed the technicals, eaten lunch, and were ready for the Salesmanship portion of the day. It\u2019s important to preface this bit by saying I had absolutely zero clue that judging CMI would also serve as my acting debut. In a gallery adjacent to where they\u2019d held technicals, the CMI team had arranged five identical \u201cshop\u201d setups: 4-foot tables equipped with a selection of cheeses, a knife, and various serving implements. The goal for the mongers was to \u201csell\u201d each judge a piece of cheese based on our needs, and as judges we were to act out the same character and scenario to every monger we encountered. This made me excited and nervous, and it meant, much to my delight, I got to eat the same goat\u2019s milk Gouda five different times. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With adrenaline still pumping from Salesmanship, the mongers rushed off to prepare their perfect Drink, Slate, and Bite: a drink and cheese pairing, cheese plate, and cheesy bite-sized item, respectively. This is when things started to get real. My partner (<\/span>Lydia Clarke of DTLA Cheese<\/span><\/a>) and I judged one drink pairing after another, then all judges (including 2019 Chicago CMI Champion <\/span>Evan Talen<\/span><\/a> and 2018 San Francisco CMI Champion <\/span>Rory Stamp<\/span><\/a>) conferred to pick a winner, quite literally, on the spot. We did the same for Slates, then moved on to Bites. At this point it was 4 p.m. and guests were starting to show up for the awards ceremony, which meant added pressure for everyone involved. We quickly sampled all of the gorgeous Bites, then carried our favorites back to the judges room for a final decision and debriefing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The end of the day was a cheesy blur. We made some very difficult decisions, tallied up the scores of all the tests, and reflected on the beautiful creations and hard work from each and every monger. Adam announced the top six contestants to a live audience, and after a slew of final lightning round challenges on stage, a winner was chosen. <\/span>Sarah Munly<\/span><\/a>, who I\u2019d seen expertly wrapping cheeses in the \u201cGlass Wrap\u201d round earlier that morning, took home the coveted CMI Champion trophy.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy of The Cheesemonger Invitational<\/p><\/div>\n

At the risk of sounding cheesy as hell, I genuinely feel that all of the mongers were winners. Everyone showed up to CMI with passion for cheese, commitment to learning, and dedication to the cheese community. Some of the mongers were first-timers like me and <\/span>Michelle Vieria<\/span><\/a>, and others were seasoned competitors like <\/span>Julia Gross<\/span><\/a>, but everyone competed like this was the most important day of the year. And honestly? It kind of feels like it was. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow our editor-in-chief Madison as she experiences the magic and electricity of her first-ever Cheesemonger Invitational.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":37835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11143,26353],"tags":[672,2179,4038,22302,2491,724],"coauthors":[20723],"class_list":["post-37819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-news","tag-cheesemonger","tag-cheesemonger-invitational","tag-cheesemonger-invitational-winner","tag-judge","tag-monger","tag-san-francisco"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy Day as a Judge at The Cheesemonger Invitational - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Follow our editor-in-chief Madison as she experiences the magic and electricity of her first-ever Cheesemonger Invitational.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/my-day-as-a-judge-at-the-cheesemonger-invitational\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Day as a Judge at The Cheesemonger Invitational\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Follow our editor-in-chief Madison as she experiences the magic and electricity of her first-ever Cheesemonger Invitational.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/my-day-as-a-judge-at-the-cheesemonger-invitational\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-28T01:36:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-24T18:56:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/download2-e1580175126324.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1110\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Madison Trapkin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Madison Trapkin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/my-day-as-a-judge-at-the-cheesemonger-invitational\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/my-day-as-a-judge-at-the-cheesemonger-invitational\/\",\"name\":\"My Day as a Judge at The Cheesemonger Invitational - 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