Cheesemongers get taste of cutting edge competition
January 26, 2005 - Agence France Presse
LYON (AFP) - Think of it as the Olympic Games of cheese—a competition between 12 cheesemonger teams from around the world competing for the first International Caseus Award.
“People are starting to think that cheese is something that just comes in plastic,” said well-known French cheese maker Herve Mons, asked why he organized the contest. “It’s more than that and there’s a person behind it.”
Teams were Sunday showing off everything from running a great cheese shop—counter presentation, sales, cutting and tasting, plus a multiple-choice test to cover anything leftover—to a side contest on cheese aging.
Italy’s presented a Parmesano-Reggiano which looked like a miniature iceberg floating over a sea of oranges, Japan had brought a well-received Epoisses-style cheese, aged with an alcohol made of distilled sweet potatoes, and Germany showed a near-perfect goat cheese called Sainte Maure de Touraine.
The competition began with each team preparing their stand, a two-meter wide cheese-counter for a nation.
Team England were up at 5:30 am preparing the monster wheels of cheese they brought for the competition and rumors flew that when one team finally got their counter set up, they broke down and cried.
“We gave up our weekends preparing for this,” said a member of the Japanese team, Miwako Mizoguchi. “Saturday and Sunday didn’t exist anymore,” added her teammate, Shizue Ohashi.
A group of four judges made the rounds to each counter, testing the competitors’ sales ability by pretending to be buying cheese for a dinner party of 15, with kids. At one point, a judge even barged in and pretended she was double-parked and in a hurry.
One of the judges, Sweden’s Ia Orre Montan, was particularly impressed with the diversity of presentation styles. “The Englishman is a man of the earth—he shares a bite with you, but with a very professional touch,” she said.
Meanwhile, a 40-kilo (90-pound) wheel of Comte was carted out to a table in front of every counter and contestants had 30 minutes to divvy it up into 47 wedges of three different weights, with points knocked off for inconsistency.
France and its neighboring countries made easy work out of this, but, England, stripped of its cheese cutter (mysteriously ruled illegal), was forced to use cheap chef’s knives and it showed.
Hidden away behind each counter, one member from each team tasted six cheeses blind, judging them on texture, type of milk, how it was aged, place of origin and what it’s called, bien sur.
There were teams from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and France competing for gold.
But it was Germany, composed of two French-born teammates, who took first place, followed by Switzerland and Sweden. So good-humoured was the event though, that the French team applauded and smiled even when they didn’t win.
Randolph Hodgson, an event judge and owner of London’s Neal’s Yard Dairy, was excited to see the Japanese team at the event. “They worked for me and have an encyclopedic knowledge of cheese and know a lot about quality,” he said. “(Seeing them here) changes our perceptions of who knows what.”
It turns out everyone at the event seems to know everyone else, thanks to the common theme of traveling to learn more about each others’ cheeses.
“Travel shows us that there are different habits and cultures in cheese,” says Carlo Fiori, a master Italian cheese ager and Caseus judge, echoing Hodgson’s enthusiasm for other cultures. “This award allows us to show the love of cheese we have.”
“Cheese,” closed Caseus founder Mons at the award ceremony, “brings people together to do marvelous things.”
