{"id":47436,"date":"2024-04-22T16:37:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T20:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=47436"},"modified":"2024-04-22T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T20:38:00","slug":"a-cheesemonger-travels-to-spain-to-see-how-manchego-is-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/a-cheesemonger-travels-to-spain-to-see-how-manchego-is-made\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cheesemonger Travels to Spain to See How Manchego is Made"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Take 5: <\/strong>Highlighting the apprenticeship \u201cbreaks\u201d of cheese industry pros<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In this ongoing series,\u00a0culture<\/strong>\u00a0profiles folks in the cheese industry expanding their expertise and gaining diverse experience beyond their time behind the counter or at a vat.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Banah (left) the judges table at Gourmet Quesos semi finals in Madrid.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cheeses ready for judging at Gourmet Quesos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Austin Banach, cheesemonger and department manager at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace in Great Barrington Mass., took a two-week hiatus from his everyday life behind the counter to travel to Spain and learn how one of the most famous cheeses in the world is produced. Banach was awarded the Essex St Manchego 1605 internship<\/a>, which gave him the opportunity to trace the production of Manchego 1605 from start to finish.\u00a0Read about his once-in-a-lifetime experience below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The internship started in Madrid\u00a0for the first week and I served as one of the first American judges for the annual Spanish Cheese Judging and Exposition Gourmet Quesos. I was sitting in a room of Spain’s\u00a0 leading cheese experts as\u00a0we inspected and tasted various\u00a0cheeses from all over Spain. Next, I toured Madrid, markets and cheese shops with Dar\u00edo Llad\u00f3, sales manager for Finca Sierra la Solana, and even got the chance to work at ‘Qava’ a cheese and wine bar owned by the renowned Spanish cheese selector and affineur, Jos\u00e9 Luis Martin. My mongering skills and language skills were really put to the test as I helped a handful of customers buy cheeses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Banach at the Gourmet Quesos cheese judging and competition. From left- Master cheese selector Jose Luis Mart\u00edn and Manchego 1605 Sales Manager, Dar\u00edo Llad\u00f3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Banach working as a cheesemonger at Qava.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I then spent the second week at Finca Sierra la Solana in Herencia, La Mancha learning about the farm, land, animals and\u00a0cheesemaking process. Not long after arrival, I was handed a crisp white uniform and got to help mold the fresh warm and aromatic curds just made. It was a therapeutic\u00a0break for all of my senses, especially\u00a0after hustling around Madrid for the first week! I spent three days making cheese with a small talented\u00a0crew led by head cheesemaker Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez-Rom\u00e1n. I also learned a great deal about the maturation process and shipping details.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0The cheesemaking team at Sierra\u00a0la Solana led by Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 (top row, second from left).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the second day at Sierra la Solana, I was invited to partake in the batch selection process of Manchego 1605 for Essex St Cheese<\/a> with Jos\u00e9 Luis Martin and Dar\u00edo Llad\u00f3. We were guided through a sensory analysis class and even did a blind tasting with competitor\u00a0Manchego.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To finish the internship, the last day I accompanied\u00a0the Shepherds for the morning milking and then to lead the herd of Manchega sheep through the picturesque fields of La Mancha. Here in the fields, I had time to rest under a marcona almond tree and meditate on the perfectly reverse engineered experience\u00a0 that began at the cheese competition and ended in the fields with the\u00a0shepherds and milking sheep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Banach hiking around La Mancha.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sheep in the fields of La Mancha.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two weeks were a whirlwind, but it gave me such an in-depth view of not just the cheese, but the people, the culture, the terroir and the soul of Spain’s\u2014and one of the world’s\u2014most beloved cheeses.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culture Media (CM): What made you want to take a break from your daily life to participate in this internship?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Austin Banach (AB):<\/strong> I love to read and learn. I especially love all the stories of the people and places. One of my favorite books of all time is The Alchemist<\/em> by Paulo Coelho. It tells the tale of a young Spaniard boy being led by omens to live out his “personal\u00a0legend” and to find his treasure. I always wanted to live out my wildest dreams of travel and adventures in cheese, so this was perhaps an “omen” to do so, and I certainly found “treasure” along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CM: What was an unexpected challenge you faced during the internship?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB:<\/strong> My Spanish wasn’t the greatest so this proved to be my biggest challenge. But it’s amazing what a two-week submersion into a different country can do. By the end of the second week, I was appropriately\u00a0rattling off Spanish idioms like Freir\u00a0de esparragos<\/em> (“get lost,” or literally, “go fry asparagus”) and Dar la\u00a0vuelta a la tortilla<\/em> (“turn the tortilla around”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CM: What was your major takeaway from this experience?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB:<\/strong> Where do I begin!? Essex St Cheese and Sierra la Solana, who sponsored this trip, really made it clear that they not\u00a0only wanted me to learn about Manchego 1605, but to truly experience this region of Spain with the culture, food, entertainment and daily life. They wanted me to soak up the Spanish sun and live like a Spaniard. I can say from the way the internship was planned and how everyone welcomed me, there will always be a huge part of Spain in my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CM: How has this experience impacted your future career goals?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB:<\/strong> It was a trip of a lifetime that I will continue to draw from for both my career and personal\u00a0paths. I intend to spread not only the knowledge of Manchego and other Spanish cheeses, but to tell the stories\u00a0of the producers, affineurs, cheese shop owners, and the small experiences that left an impression on me. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CM: Did this internship change your overall view of the cheese\/food industry at large?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB:<\/strong> This trip was so powerful because it encompassed the entire journey of a cheese. From the sheep’s milk at the farm, to the cheesemaking facility, to the selection process for shipping, to the cheese shops in the city\u00a0and finally to a national cheese competition for a chance for national (and potentially international) recognition. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highlighting the apprenticeship \u201cbreaks\u201d of cheese industry pros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":47441,"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":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[34456],"tags":[15185,34457,1946,1028],"coauthors":[842],"class_list":["post-47436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-take-five","tag-fromagerie-lamuse-essex-street-cheese-co","tag-internship","tag-manchego","tag-spain"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Cheesemonger Travels to Spain to See How Manchego is Made - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\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\/a-cheesemonger-travels-to-spain-to-see-how-manchego-is-made\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Cheesemonger Travels to Spain to See How Manchego is Made\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Highlighting the apprenticeship \u201cbreaks\u201d of cheese industry pros.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/a-cheesemonger-travels-to-spain-to-see-how-manchego-is-made\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-22T20:37:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-22T20:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/image8-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 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\/a-cheesemonger-travels-to-spain-to-see-how-manchego-is-made\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/a-cheesemonger-travels-to-spain-to-see-how-manchego-is-made\/\",\"name\":\"A Cheesemonger Travels to Spain to See How Manchego is Made - 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