Cheeseapolooza!
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Hello Fellow Travelers!
Tokyo, Japan may be the home of the 2020 Summer Olympics, but another “Olympic-Worthy” competition took place on January 19th that I need to tell you about. If you were to quickly look at the trophy pictured here, you might guess that it was for a blue-ribbon steer at the local county fair, but you would have guessed wrong.
Cheese producers may initially rely on their cheese maker, their marketing department, their dedicated sales team, their distributors, their brokers, or their retail buyers, but it’s really the hard work at store level of the cheesemonger that makes all the difference. There may be many cheese competitions yearly around the globe, but without the mighty cheesemonger many producers would struggle…as they are the last person to handle the cheese before it heads home in the consumer’s shopping basket. Therefore, this competition is dedicated to them and their craft - Cheesemonger Invitational
Photo courtesy of CMI judge and cheesemonger, Liz Nerud
In 2010, Adam Moskowitz, owner/operator of Larkin Cold Storage and Columbia Cheese started an annual competition among the nation’s best cheesemongers in New York to recognize their hard work and efforts. The results?...Due to its overwhelming popularity, two more competitions have been added each year!
January in San Francisco
April in Chicago
June in New York
Last week forty of the best cheesemongers from around the country came to San Francisco (as seen above) to compete in an intense day-long series of cheese challenges. Participants had a welcome reception, as well as educational round table meetings with some of the best cheese makers in the U.S….But from that point on, it was an all-out day long competition. These cheese pros were put through a series of tests: Blind cheese tastings, a grueling written exam, as well as “the perfect cheese cutting” (meaning that they would be judged on cutting a perfect pound, half pound, etc.). The next round of the competition was creating the “Perfect Cheese Plate” (included with a “perfect beverage” to pair with it) and lastly a perfect bite (or Amuse Bouche). This day-long event challenged the mongers’ skills, knowledge and creativity.
Following this private daytime competition was an evening party attended by 800 members of the cheese-loving public. So what is this event like?... This description below is right from their website:
“Trust us when we say that this party is like no party you’ve ever attended. This is a have-to-be-there, *FOMO-inducing, adrenaline-pumping cheesesplosion. Expect rabid cheese fans. Expect a grown man in a cow costume. Expect a lot of cheese — like, whatever you’re imagining is a lot of cheese? Imagine more. You honestly haven’t lived until you’ve cheered at the top of your lungs (with a mouth full of brie) for someone to cut a perfect quarter pound of cheese on a stage in front of hundreds of like-minded cheese heads.
Yeah…It’s like that. It could also be described as Wrestlemania vs. Fight Club (minus the violence)….just add the cheese!
After nearly four hours, the final five competed in several final competitions on stage in front of their adoring public. A cutting and wrapping competition, as well as a trivia competition brought the finalist down to just two competitors.
Sarah Munly and Adam Moskowitz
Just imagine all of this going on while a DJ is playing dance music and the room is surrounded by at least 35 cheese and charcuterie producers, all sampling their latest creations. WOW!
In the end, the celebrity cheese judges crowned Sarah Munly of Cheese Bar in Portland, Oregon the 2020 CMI winner (a prize that was won by her boss, Steve Jones in 2011 in New York.
So for their efforts, I say a humble “Thank You” for all of our cheesemonger community!...You are worth your weight in gold.
Until next week…
Cheers!
Trevor
*FOMO = Fear of Missing Out
