Cara Condon is a black horse coming in 2022 Cheesemonger Invitational in Brooklyn last Sunday.
Although she has worked in the field for more than a decade, she feels that her wrapping skills are not top-notch and worries that her cheese-and-drink combo won’t work out.
“I know that sounds disgusting,” she says of her creation: equal Galliano coffee liqueur and pineapple juice, topped with a slice of dried orange, designed to make the Alpine cheese she makes Was delivered. “But the bitterness, and the sweetness, the sugar, and the soft acidity of pineapple really work on Challerhocker. ”
She was then announced as a finalist.
Two dozen competitors went through 10 events that day. The five finalists will be speed tested on everyday cheese skills: eyeballing and cutting a perfect half-pound wedge out of a giant slab of stone; skillfully wrap wedges with paper; and seal the remainder in plastic wrap to return to the display case.
Miss Condon didn’t win those hotties, but she did win in the quiz segment, nailing facts like whether halloumi has provenance protection (it isn’t) and the name of the party class. The inside of the spruce bark is wrapped around certain cheeses during ripening (which is cambium). And at the end of the 10-hour competition, Miss Condon – sweating and wearing a Bulls jersey to represent the Chicago cheese shop where she worked, Beautiful Rind – was crowned champion.
The story of the Cheesemongers Invitational begins with the 1999 collapse of a powerful Swiss conglomerate, and culminates, at least this year, at Brooklyn Steel, a concert venue with hundreds of people screaming fans, the singing of David Bowie and Freddie Mercury “Under Pressure,” and the fun of a thousand cheeses.
The plot is Adam Moskowitz, a recovering rapper, actor, addict, and lost soul who has found his purpose in life in cheese. He’s dedicated himself to helping others do the same, especially since 2019, when he overdosed and missed the competition because he was in rehab. On Sunday, that meant dancing on stage in a black and white cowboy costume, his sleeves ripped off to show off his blue ink tattoos and yellow fingernails, shouting encouragement over the mic as he He runs the program.
A cheesemaker is to make cheese almost as a winemaker is a winemaker: not a producer, but a knowledgeable interpreter, advisor and seller. This job includes elements of connoisseurship, sales skills, sensory training, and a strong grasp of geography, history, and microbiology. The American Cheese Associationa trade group of domestic producers founded in 1983 that provides certification to cheesemakers and organizes an annual cheese competition, and has helped make cheese “artisan” and American “farms” into a booming sector of the $35 billion cheese market.
But there were few events or educational opportunities exclusively for cheese lovers until Mr Moskowitz combined his longtime dream of becoming an entertainer with his then new job at a dairy import business. of his father in Queens. In 2010, he held the first invitation as a kind of party after party Fancy food show, as global cheesemakers flocked to New York in droves. “It was terrible,” he said of the event at his Queens warehouse. “I don’t even remember what the events were.”
Now, there’s a sophisticated scoring system, a formal panel of 14 judges, and a final round open to the public, sponsored (and offered with edible cheese) by the companies. dairy such as Jasper Hill Farm, Uplands Cheese Company and Caputo Brothers Creamery.
The call may have grown, but there was never a barrier to entry; Any working cheesemonger can compete. Moskowitz’s only requirement was that competitors show up for three days of demonstrations, tastings and presentations. In fact, most cheesy artists prioritize educational opportunities and camaraderie over competitions.
John Litzinger, cheese department head at Son of a butcher in Birmingham. “Being around so many people eating cheese is a very enjoyable experience.”
In the sales challenge, the contestants asked questions from the judges acting as customers, such as: “Tonight I have to bring a plate of cheese to the barbecue, the party organizers only serve rosé and one of them is pregnant; What would you recommend?” In the tasting, they competed to identify cheeses from all over the world by taste and aroma alone, and then identified each variety by five basic characteristics: type: dairy (cow, goat, sheep, buffalo or mixed); milk treatment (pasteurized or raw); style (washed, shelled, pressed, undercooked, green or fresh); juice origin; and the name of the cheese (such as Roquefort, Manchego or Asiago) Nathalie Baer Chan, a new competitor, earned her first perfect score in that event on Sunday, eliciting words of support from she Murray Cheese teammate.
These tests have some similarities to wine competitions, but they tend to be serious, discreet. “Cheese is a simple food,” said Mr. Moskowitz. “I didn’t want to complicate it in the way that wine has become complicated,” he describes as limiting, separating and categorizing.
Although now developed, the work of wine merchants – mostly white men – still reflects European authority and tradition. The cheesemongers at Brooklyn Steel reflect diversity and creativity, showing off body jewelry, vintage dresses, ear watches, moto jackets, headscarves, and in the case of Morgen Schroeder Martha’s Vineyard Cheeserya yellow garment with Emmenthal holes perforated.
“The goal of the job is to make people feel comfortable sitting around cheese,” said Reese Wool, runner-up, who works at the busy Murray’s Cheese stand in Grand Central Terminal. Ms. Wool began their transition during the pandemic, and said they felt surprisingly comfortable going through the process with full view of their colleagues and friends. client. “I think the way we present it to them is that there is no judgment,” they said.
Mr. Moskowitz, too, does not fit the traditional mold of a cheese expert. He smokes in the offices of Parliament, speaks obscenities and has a graffiti art studio in a corner of a warehouse in Queens. But he’s a third-generation dairy farmer: His grandfather traded butter and eggs at the Washington Market, the second-hand market in Manhattan’s meatpacking district, and his father started Larkin Cold Storage, an import and distribution company in Long Island City. , which Mr. Moskowitz currently owns.
This seems like a well-lubricated road. But he took many detours: Aloof from his father for most of his childhood, he only took a job as a cheese maker after tiring of the many other career options available to an extrovert with a temper. substance abuse problem. He started as a cheesemaker at Formaggio Essex on the Lower East Side and cautiously joined his father’s business in 2007.
He still had doubts about the cheese career, when – surprisingly – he became passionately involved in the nascent farmhouse cheese movement in Switzerland.
From 1914 to 1999, the Schweizer Käseunion (Swiss Cheese Confederation) controlled virtually every aspect of cheese in Switzerland, acting as a milk monopoly and assisting in the production of only a limited number of cheeses. prized cheeses such as Emmenthal, Gruyère and Appenzeller.
During the 1990s, a series of corruption scandals and legal challenges brought the union down, and a new generation of cheesemakers began to break with tradition.
One of them became Moskowitz’s cheese muse and spirit guide: Walter Räss, the maker of Chällerhocker cheese, which Moskowitz first tasted during a business trip in 2008.
Last Friday, the softly spoken Mr. Räss told an enthralled audience of his story.
Mr. Räss comes from a long family of farmers and cheesemakers in St. Little Gallen. Under the cartel, he was Appenzeller’s top producer, but aspired to make his mark as an independent cheesemaker. “There is no room for ideas, for entrepreneurship, for creativity,” he said.
In 2003 he introduced Jersey cows to his family herd and used their rich milk instead of the skimmed milk from the Brown Swiss cows he had to feed Appenzeller. He changed the brine and began aging the cheese in his own cellar.
It has developed completely new flavors: nut, custard, floral. Mr. Moskowitz began importing it into the United States, changing Mr. Räss’ life – and his own. (At this point, Mr. Moskowitz was openly crying, but Mr. Räss continued.)
“We Swiss think we are the navel of the world cheese,” he said, pointing his chin toward the cheesecakes. “But all of you sitting here know more than any Swiss cheesemaker did 20 years ago.”
“Cheese is life, friends,” said Mr. Moskowitz, wiping his eyes. “There’s always more to learn.”
