{"id":41491,"date":"2022-03-15T16:55:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T20:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=41491"},"modified":"2022-03-24T09:33:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T13:33:58","slug":"behind-the-scenes-at-the-2022-world-championship-cheese-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/behind-the-scenes-at-the-2022-world-championship-cheese-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes at the 2022 World Championship Cheese Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Kristine Hansen | Photography courtesy of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association<\/em><\/p>\n

On day three of judging at the World Championship Cheese Contest<\/a>, a sea of white lab coats confers in hushed tones behind a roped-off area. The Championship Round just wrapped.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s on to the final round: for the 53 judges to select the world\u2019s top-20 cheeses. Of the 2,978 entries representing 29 countries and 33 U.S. states, which cheeses will soar to the top? Also judged were butters and yogurts, comprising a total of 141 categories.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Judge Jessica Fern\u00e1ndez<\/a> of Lactography in Mexico City smells a piece of Red Rock from Roelli Cheese. <\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

One judge in each group uses a trier\u2014much like a waiter\u2019s corkscrew\u2014to dispense tubular samples from the wedge or wheel and discuss, as a group, the cheese\u2019s aroma, texture, and taste. Some judges, like Spain’s Dr. Francisco de Asis Ruiz Morales of the Andalusian Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training, are so focused during this task they appear to be in a trance. Eyes closed, he takes in a whiff of a wedge. Next, he examines the cheese as if under a microscope, then takes a photo on his smartphone, perhaps to review later (or to enlarge, so as not to miss any defects or imperfections?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Judges cast their chips to vote.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

To vote, there\u2019s the practice of poker chips.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of you should be holding two chips,\u201d John Umhoefer says into a mic, where the judges gather on the ground floor of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace and Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Just beyond the ballroom\u2019s double doors is the icy surface of Lake Monona, the tension as strong as it is inside the room.<\/p>\n

All of the judges are rapt. The Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association<\/a>\u2019s (WCMA) executive director, Umhoefer is the master of ceremonies. \u201cWe\u2019re going to count down \u20183, 2, 1, vote\u2019 and you want to put your two chips on two different cheeses,\u201d he says. As Kristen Strohmenger, the association\u2019s events manager, chaperones each table\u2019s judging, one group endures three consecutive ties for the same cheese. They try again. This time each judge tosses a single chip down. A winner is declared, although its identity anonymous due to a lack of labeling. (Entries often lack a producer\u2019s logo or label.)<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Cheesemakers Steve Stettler of Decatur Dairy (left) and Gordy Bergemann of Maple Leaf Cheese Store examine a cut wheel of Swiss cheese.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s nearly two years to the day since the last World Championship Cheese Contest. The biannual event that debuted in 1957 is always in Wisconsin and narrowly escaped being cancelled this year and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Cathy Strange, Whole Foods Market\u2019s cheese buyer and a veteran cheese judge, says this contest is her favorite. She\u2019s now judged it 16 times. (Yes, that\u2019s 32 years.) It\u2019s the hyper-technical aspect that she loves. \u201cIt\u2019s at a different level,\u201d Strange says. \u201cAmerican Cheese Society has a technical judge and an aesthetic judge, and the World Cheese Awards includes chefs and media as judges.\u201d<\/p>\n

To judge this contest requires technical training from places like the Center for Dairy Research<\/a> in Madison, Wisconsin, where 100 Whole Foods Market cheesemongers are being trained this year. \u201cCheese starts at 100 points and is graded on defects\u2014like extra moisture or an imperfect rind,\u201d says Strange. \u201cWe evaluate texture and grade on flavor. There are five components you look at, including the rind, and deduct one-tenth of a point for defects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some great cheeses, including three I haven\u2019t seen before,\u201d says Strange. \u201cIt was delicious\u2014so clean and balanced,\u201d she says about a cheese crafted from sheep\u2019s and donkey\u2019s milk, and also praised a goat cheese from Mirasaka Fromage in Miyoshi-city, Hiroshima, Japan, that won its class (Soft-Ripened Goat\u2019s Milk Cheeses). More and more female judges are arriving each year, Strange says.<\/p>\n

New this year was a move for curds from the Natural Snack Cheese class to Cheese Curds, a debut category. \u201cAfter 2020, and the growing number of curd entries, we thought, \u2018We should really break this out separately,\u2019\u201d says Grace Atherton communications director for the WCMA, which hosts and organizes the annual contest.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Judge Drew Kordus of Great Lakes Cheese<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Decatur Dairy<\/a>, which has been making cheese in Brodhead, Wisconsin, since the 1940s, won Best in Class for its Muenster Curds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stars aligned,\u201d says cheesemaker Steve Stettler. \u201cIt\u2019s the first year we had the category and we placed first. Cheese curds have always been a passion of mine.\u201d Stettler is also the first Master Cheesemaker to be certified in curds, an honor he achieved in 2021.<\/p>\n

Later that afternoon, once the results have been tallied, the judges\u2014many of them cheesemakers\u2014huddle in small groups in front of a stage where the top-20 cheeses are on display.<\/p>\n

Winning for the third time (2008 and 2020) is Gourmino Le Gruy\u00e8re AOP<\/a>, a hard Alpine-style Swiss cheese made by Michael Spycher (and two other Master Cheesemakers) of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus in Bern, Switzerland. That cheese nabbed 98.423 points. The two runners-up cheeses are also from Europe: first runner-up Appenzeller Mild-W\u00fcrzig, made by K\u00e4serei Niederb\u00fcren AG<\/a> of Niederb\u00fcren<\/em>, Switzerland (98.331 points); and Erzherzog Johann, a mature washed rind\/smear ripened hard cheese crafted by Obersteirische Molkerei eGen<\/a> of Knittefeld, Steiermark, Austria (98.254 points).<\/p>\n

As each of these cheesemakers stand on stage, beaming with pride and cradling their prized cheese, it\u2019s clear there is little, if any, competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants everyone to do good and perform well,\u201d says Strange, \u201cbecause it just lifts the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on this year’s World Championship Cheese Contest, click here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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