Wisconsin Foodie

>> In this episode of Wisconsin Foodie, we visit Madison, Wisconsin, for the World Cheese Championship. With over 2500 cheeses from around the world, this group of esteemed and international judges must select the top three cheeses in the world. We meet some of the judges that happen also to be the biggest names in the cheese industry, from buyers to writers, and cheesemakers to mongers. One of those makers is Marieke Penterman, of Holland Family Farms. She gives us a tour of her farm, as well as her philosophy in cheesemaking and raising comfortable gouda cows. Then, we return to the cheese competition to see the final judging and eventual winners. All of that and more on this episode of Wisconsin Foodie. Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following major underwriters for their support. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who fostered a proud history, with generations of family-owned dairy farms, working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. For more information on Wisconsin dairy,

visit

eatwisconsincheese.com >> There are a few unequivocal qualifiers in every discipline. Entertainment's got its Oscars and Golden Globes. For cheese, the artisanal cheese, this, the World Cheese Championship is just that. It happens once every two years, but it is an international prize of unheralded acclaim. These cheeses are, without question, the finest of the finest, the most treasured. They made their way to Madison, Wisconsin, and at some point tonight, these extraordinary artisans, these farmers, these craftspeople, out of them, somebody is going to be named the winner. >> Good morning, everybody. We're glad to see you here today to watch us do our judging for the World Championship Cheese contest. I've been at this, this is the 29th year that I've been involved in the judging of the cheese for the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association. We're in the midst of judging 2504 pieces of cheese. Oh, I love it. I meet a lot of people and I enjoy seeing all the new kinds of cheese that are coming in. You know, there are so many more specialty type cheeses nowadays. It's interesting what cheesesmakers can come up with. >> My name is Sara Hill. Basically, I'm the national educator. I travel the country extolling the virtues of amazing Wisconsin cheeses. You can see that they've got the cheeses laid out ready for the judges. Once they have them judged, they mark them very carefully with colored dots so that they know they have been judged and they can go back to the storage site. This table is doing spread cheese, all different spreads from around the world. Next, we have the marbled curd cheeses, which are the co-jacks of the world. They're using two types of curd. Wisconsin is very special, because they take cheese and dairy products very seriously here. It really is about the sustainability of the dairy farmers, and of the cheesemakers. They need each other so much, and they work together so closely. The dairy farmers need to know that those cheesemakers are going to buy their milk, and the cheesemakers need to know that those dairy farmers are really making sure that their milk is the highest quality. You can't get great cheese if you don't have great milk. >> The process of judging is, you look at the product first. You see how it's presented to you. Open it up and take a sample of it. You look at the cheese itself. If there's any defects or holes that aren't supposed to be there, or some that should be there and not. Then you feel it, the body and texture, whether it's grainy or too hard or too soft. The last thing you finally do is you taste it. That, of course, is the most important thing. It has to really taste like the cheese that you're looking at is supposed to taste like. I'm going to take at look at these guys right here. The cheese is stored in the back, behind the curtain. There's a volunteer that will bring the cheese up to the judge. These gentlemen have been

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00 this morning. I'm sure their tasters are in good condition. Most of these people are from the cheese industry. A lot of them are buying cheese for a company, or selling cheese for a company, or manufacturing it, that type of thing, people that are doing hands-on work. Here is that new kind of cheese that is becoming quite popular, queso frescos. It's a Mexican type of cheese, if you will, a softer variety. You'll notice, we have a man from Mexico helping us judge it. >> Every cheese here is a winner, until we score it, or show it to be something less than a winner. We treat every single cheese with the absolute respect that it deserves. I think that pretty much sums it up. We all live off the backs of these cheeses, because they're famous, because they have high value, because they do good things for farmers. Cheese is special. Here, cheese gets the ultimate respect. >> I'm Steve Stettler, president of Decatur Dairy. I'm a third generation cheesemaker. I have five masters, brick, muenster, farmer's cheese, havarti, and specialty Swiss. We always try to make the best cheese. When the Europeans come in, they make such fabulous cheese that if we can get a first or win that's fantastic. >> Look at that! >> Right in the middle!

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>> My daughter cut a Swiss for the first time with a wire. She did pretty good. She actually kind of made me look bad. >> Wisconsin is well recognized, not just in the United States, but worldwide. Phenomenal Cheeses. In all my books, I've written about Wisconsin. Several cheeses out of about 70 that I've tried so far, there at least five of them that I've thought that this cheese is near perfect. >> Hi, I'm Cathy Strange. I'm the global cheese buyer with Whole Foods Market. It's really a journey with cheese, because many people will grow up eating cheese or some type of cheese product on sandwiches. So there's a familiarity with that. But what's cool about it is you can evolve your palate. Wisconsin is the largest cheese producing state in the United States. They have a rich and storied history with the development of products. Wisconsin is not simply about cheddar, but they are certainly a very wonderful cheddar producing state. But there's all types of cheese now being made in this state, and there's cheeses that have won awards throughout the world. It's a really rich history, and I'm glad to be a part of it. Well, I judged the open category with David Lockwood, who I think is just one of my most favorite people. He's a great judge and I learn a lot from him. >> My name's David Lockwood. I'm the managing director of Neal's Yard Dairy in London, in the UK. We sell British and Irish cheeses in the UK to America and Europe. I love cheese. That's why I judge cheeses. This is my second time in Madison. The first time I came was two years ago. I love it. It's a great competition. Wisconsin's a really interesting case, in that I think there's so much going on here. There are people who are challenging to do new things. There are people who have been producing the same cheese for a long time, but then they come here and see something new and they say, ah, how can I work that in. I think it's a really strong culture. >> My name is Marieke Penterman. I'm from Holland. We started about five years ago with the Marieke Gouda in Thorp, Wisconsin. The 22nd of November, 2006, I made my very first batch. Now, five years later, we won over 50 awards. The first time we entered, two years ago, we actually won a second place in a gouda category. It's an awesome, very high quality contest. They actually advertise in the Netherlands with this Madison World Cheese Competition. It has a big impact. If you see how many different people from all over the country with different nationalities are here, I think we should be very proud here in Wisconsin to have something like this going on. >> So we're here with Marieke Penterman of Holland's Family Cheese, on the farmstead that makes the award winning Holland's Family Cheese, Marieke Gouda. >> A lot of work on the farmstead, isn't there? >> Oh, yeah, there's a lot of work. It's a 24/7 thing. It's something, we live on the farm, so we hear every cow that is mooing when it wants to have a little calf. >> We have one of your newborns here. How old? >> It's just a couple hours old now. >> It's just darling. About how many cows do you have on the farm right now? >> We have about 800 cows. They need a lot of love, tender and care, of course. This is where it all begins. It's starts with that. Very little calves that are just born, and grow up to be a beautiful gouda cow. This is where the milk comes from. Cow comfort is very important. If a cow doesn't feel happy, the farmer isn't happy either, and neither is the cheesemaker. See the cow over there? She is under the cow brush. Look how happy she is. She's stretching out. Every pen has one. >> So, Marieke, when I am doing cheese education around the country about what's going on in Wisconsin, many times I use your cheese, because I have them taste it. The flavor, even though it's mild, there's so much complexity. I use that to tell the story about a farmstead cheese operation. >> I will say you have the circle complete here, you know. Within five hours after the cow has been milked, that milk goes straight through a pipeline under the ground into a cheese vat. You have to cool down the milk. So how often does that happen? It's still warm from the cow's body temperature. So we have about 4000 wheels in here. The first two rows are fresh cheeses. You can see the cheese is in brine over here. This is where they're flipping the cheeses. We take the cheese out and we turn them around. You see how sensitive it still is? That's why in a production room it's very warm, too. You don't want to scare it with coldness or something. What happens is when you get them out of the brine, we get here and start coating the cheeses. This you can see, too, it's just coated. >> How many total varieties are you making now? >> We have about 20 different varieties, different flavors. But again, it's one basic recipe. At the end of the making process, we add the flavors to it, like the Honey Clover, Pesto Basil, all kinds of it. Today, we made a wine one. There's one wheel to test. These are our regular cheeses. This is a pretty old one. It's more than a year old. We have one, a huge one, it's actually sold. But that one is made on the 1st of December, 2006. Yeah, and look how heavy it is. >> This is-- ugh-- Is this a double or a triple? >> It's 35 pounds. >> Okay. You're surrounded by beautiful farms of all kinds. I know that they supply many of the cheesemakers in the area. But it's a great story that you have your own animals, that you're making a cheese here right on the farm, and winning awards for fantastic cheese. >> Yes, we are very fortunate to be here. >> So we're ready? Big smiles, everyone. All right. One, two... >>

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Cheese! >> All right, for this round of judging, we're going to judge a little bit, we're going to score a little bit different than we did on the first round. On the first round, we took points away, okay? On this round, we're going to add points. So you're going to have a score sheet like this. Everything will be on paper. You'll have a clipboard with one of these on it. Now, on the flavor, you can give up to 50 points. It's got a perfect flavor if you have 50 points. These cheeses have all made it this far for a reason. They've all been selected by you folks, so we don't expect anything to come in here with a score of 25 or 30, or something like that. These are all good cheeses, that we have here on these tables, okay? Keep that in mind. >> Today, we had our preliminary final round competition, in order to produce the top 16 cheeses out of the entire contest. Sixteen of the best cheeses in the world.

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>> We just discovered that we one of the final 16, on a world championship, so that's an amazing feeling to be in the top 16 in the world, of so many good cheeses from all over the world. I'm very proud of it. We'll see how the judges will judge it, but to be in the top 16 is amazing. This is already my championship. >> Marieke, I saw a lot of your cheese today in the contest. They all looked wonderful. They looked beautiful. They looked like this. So, can you give the world all your secrets? >> No, I cannot. >> I didn't think you would.

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Okay. Would you, though, at least describe the flavor in here for this one? >> Yes. >> I believe it's a smoked. >> It's a smoked. >> Okay. >> It's very, well, I'm from Holland, so my words are not always perfect, but a very distinctive flavor. I think it's a well-balanced flavor between the smoked and the --. It has a smooth and creamy, and it gives a kind of a caramel flavor to it, with a bite of the smoked to it. We actually, we don't add a smoked flavor to the cheeses, we actually let the smoke-- We smoke it out somewhere. >> So you place it in a smoker. >> Correct. >> So I have to give the smoker some credit, too. >> Yeah. >> He did it very well. >> So no Liquid Smoke. >> No Liquid Smoke. >> I think I knew that, because I actually saw the marks from the smoker. Congratulations. This is fun to be part of this and to see your success five years after starting to make cheese. You're making some of the best cheeses in the world, as proven, in the United States and in the world. >> Thank you, that's a big compliment coming from you. >> Congratulations. >> A prestigious team of judges. Forty judges from all over the world have been judging these cheeses, one by one, and have come up with a top award winner from each category, which will be judged this evening. Cheese number one, in the smear-ripened semi-soft cheese category is Winzer Kse from Switzerland. Cheese number two, in the smear-ripened hard cheese category is Tte de Moine. The next cheese in the Havarti category is from master cheesemaker from Wisconsin, Steve Stettler.

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In the reduced-fat soft and semi-soft cheese, Vermeer, Team Steenderen. Finally, Marieke Gouda, Smoked, Holland's Family Cheese Team, from Thorp, Wisconsin.

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At this point, all the judges will try each one of these cheeses. You can watch them do their work. >> Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight. I'm going to announce third place, second runner-up to the World Champion. It is the Appenzeller. Appenzeller Kaese, made by Karl Germann. Appenzeller Kaese, from Switzerland.

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All right, the second best cheese in the world, first runner up. It's the smear-ripened semi-soft cheese, Winzer Kse. Made by Adrian Mayer, and Kserei Grundbach. Kserei Grundbach is in Wattenwil, Switzerland.

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Now the World Champion cheese. From 2012... There's a lot of cheesemakers in the room holding their breath. Here we go. It is the Vermeer made by Team Steenderen, FrieslandCampina, in Wolvega, Netherlands.

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>> My name is Peter Piersma. I'm by myself over here representing FrieslandCampina. I'm very happy that a traditional Dutch cheese has been chosen World Champion 2012. >> I thought the winner was very deserving. It was without fault. Although I didn't pick it as the winner, it was a great win. >> I think that Americans are really appreciating cheese now. I know Wisconsin does, there's no doubt about it. We always have. I think Americans are catching up. I'm very proud. I would've like to see an American somewhere in the top three, but they did show in the final 16. You'll see more in the future, I'm sure. >> You know, it is really, really hard to beat a good Swiss Appenzeller, or a good Swiss Emmentanler, or a Dutch Gouda. I mean, that's just the way that it is. These folks have been making cheese for hundreds of years longer than we have. You know, the cheese just sort of runs in their blood. I think, you know, in the United States, the specialty cheese industry is really, it's just beginning. You know, we're maybe 20 years old, whereas over there, they're 400 years old. We're making really, really good cheese here. I think that came out in the fact that, you know, we had quite a few US cheeses in this final round, five were from Wisconsin, which is absolutely stunning. I don't think that's ever happened before, where you've had five from Wisconsin in the final round. It's a good day to be from Wisconsin. >> Wisconsin Foodie is made possible by underwriting support from the following companies. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board; Travel Wisconsin; Outpost Natural Foods Co-op; Wollersheim Winery; Alterra Coffee Roasters; and Something Special from Wisconsin; This episode of Wisconsin Foodie is now available on DVD through WisconsinFoodie.com There, you'll also find articles, recipes, events, and past episodes. You can also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and watch other content through YouTube and Vimeo. Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following major underwriters for their support. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who fostered a proud history, with generations of family-owned dairy farms, working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. For more information on Wisconsin dairy,

visit

eatwisconsincheese.com