The Super Bowl of Cheese

UPDATE, MARCH 13, 2008: Swiss Gruyere takes top cheese honors

A Swiss Gruyere cheese was awarded the title of best cheese in the world Thursday afternoon at the finale of the 27th biennial World Cheese Competition in Madison, beating out nearly 2,000 other cheeses in the competition.

...Overall, U.S. cheesemakers dominated the competition, earning gold medals in 46 of the total 77 categories judged, including golds in both butter classes and in the retail packaging class.

Wisconsin cheesemakers took home 27 out of 77 available best-in-class awards, more than any other single state or country.

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Behold the power of cheese!

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

There are cheeseheads, and then there are people like Gary Grossen.

Born above a Green County family cheese factory in 1949, he has curds in his genes, one could almost say. He became a master cheesemaker in 1968 and a genuine sense of joy and a deep affection for the process permeate the conversation when he talks about cheesemaking.

Most recently, UW-Madison's Babcock Hall Dairy Plant has been reaping the benefit of his years of experience, and their list of recent awards stands as proof of his skills.

There are few people who can claim to know cheese like he does. But at the 27th biennial World Championship Cheese Contest, which began Tuesday and ends Thursday, most of those people were in the room with him.

Grossen is one of about 150 volunteers from the cheesemaking industry who have descended upon Madison's Monona Terrace for the event, varyingly dubbed the Olympics or the Super Bowl of cheese competitions by participants. With a record 1,941 dairy products from around the world entered this year — that's 20 tons of cheese and butter — it's the largest competition of its kind in the world, and also the most prestigious, according to organizers and volunteers.

...A Wisconsin-made cheese hasn't won the top prize since 1988, but Tuesday afternoon things were looking pretty good for America's Dairyland as Wisconsin cheeses swept up top prizes in two out of three early finishing classes.

"It gets kind of tense when you get towards the end, when you know you have a good cheese in there," said Grossen, who has three entrants from Babcock Dairy in the competition. "But if you get in the top 10 ... you can hold your head high."

It's been twenty years since a Wisconsin-made cheese has won the top honor.

Maybe this will be the year a Wisconsin cheesemaker can cut it.