Cheese to cheese
“Cheese Oscar”
The World Cheese Awards championship held for more than 30 years, changes the venue every year. A huge number of participants and a huge range of cheeses remain unchanged. In 2019, cheese makers from 42 countries applied for participation of 3804 cheeses. Of these, 1,450 products were awarded medals in the bronze, silver, gold and super gold categories.
The championship was held during the Forme festival, which included tastings, the cheese fair of B2 cheese, an international exhibition for experts, producers, importers, journalists and consumers.
260 judges from 35 countries evaluated the products of the World Cheese Awards by taste, aroma and texture.
16 cheeses were traditionally selected for the final. Of these, the best was cheese from the United States - organic blue cheese from cow milk. According to the jury, the product is made at a cheese factory in Southern Oregon, aged 11 months in a cave, packaged by hand in organic grape leaves soaked in pear liqueur. This cheese was on par with Italian parmesan, receiving 100 points. The final decision was made by the Chairman of the jury.
Winner cheese
The full list of the top 16 can be studied here.
The list of absolute winners included one cheese from the United States, one cheese from Japan, one cheese from the Netherlands, three from Italy, four from England, two from Spain, three from Switzerland, one from France.
286 cheeses were awarded "gold" of the championship. 84 cheeses were awarded Super-Gold.
Several cheesemakers from Russia took participation in the championship in 2019.
The championship marked cheeses of "The school cheese making by Olesya Shevchuk" - cheese "Duel" - solid author's cheese made of a mixture of cow and goat milk with a ripening period of one year. "Tricolor" is a semi-hard milk cheese made of goat milk with an Italian flag on the cut.
"This cheese helps us to express our love, friendship and respect for our colleagues from Italy through its unusual pure taste and festive mood, which it creates by its appearance. We are very grateful to Yulia Losenkova and Rustam Agdarov for their help in sending cheeses to the competition – they took a huge job on paperwork for export!",- said Olesya Shevchuk.
Gold medal of World Cheese Awards was brought by cheese factory "Cheese&Beer" for cheese “Peshcherny".
Bronze medals were awarded to cheeses “Tricolor " and "Duel" by Olesya Shevchuk, "Krestyansky", "Medovy", Istrinsky, Festivalny by Oleg Sirota, Brique amber de famille and Le Paille de famille by the cheese factory "De famille".
FROMONVAL
This competition is of course much more modest than the “Cheese Oscar", but is the second most important in France, which in turn is famous for its variety of cheeses.
More than 60 cheesemakers from France, Switzerland take part in this event. The team from Russia went to the competition and under the auspices of the project by the “Rosselkhozbank” "Svoye (our own)".
The wine cheese received Gold of the competition in the category of pressed cheese, "Istra cheese factory by Oleg Sirota", cheese "Buch in the ashes" in the category semi-mature goat cheese by the cheese factory "Andreev, Kandyrina and cheese", cheese "Tumannoye utro (Foggy morning)" by the cheese factory of Lyubov Gorbacheva in the category of cheeses with white mold. Tyrolean cheese by Istra cheese factory of Oleg Sirota received silver medal.
The bronze medal was given to the cheese "Chernaya dyra (Black hole)", cheese factory: "Andreev, Kandyrina and cheese", in the category of goat semi-mature cheeses. Moscow region, Istra: Gubernatorsky cheese in the category of pressed cheeses, "Istra cheese factory by Oleg Sirota"; Krestyansky cheese, "Istra cheese factory by Oleg Sirota".
OPINIONS
Are all these victories at the international level important for the domestic market?
According to the Chairman of the Board of the Rosselkhozbank, Russian cheese-making conquers new heights.
- This success of cheesemakers perfectly demonstrates the contribution of small and medium-sized businesses to the development of agriculture. When cheesemakers asked us to support their participation in the competition, we were sure that they would adequately represent our country, because their products have already won the hearts of many Russians. Now cheesemakers declared themselves on an international scale – said Boris Listov.
Oleg Sirota is optimistic. In his opinion, the victories of domestic producers show a new level of cheese production. However, how much do the participants and winners of international competitions produce? A drop in the ocean for the whole of Russia.
- World Cheese Award, and Fromonval are very prestigious competitions. Fromonval is a landmark event, as it is judged by the teachers of one of the French schools of cheese making, and both competitions are very interesting. I believe that this is a well-deserved success, our industry is getting back on its feet and reaching a new level of cheese production. It cannot but please, - noted Oleg Sirota.
According to Rosstat, the growth of cheese production in Russia from January to September reached 8.8%. In total, the country produced 390 thousand tons of cheese. Despite the reduction in production in September compared to August, in comparison with September 2018, enterprises increased cheese production by 19.9%, according to Rosstat. It should be noted that the Department considers both cheeses and cheese products.
By the way, the Rabobank in a recent report predicted the growth of cheese imports in Russia next year.
There are even those who accuse craft cheesemakers of buying the product in Switzerland.
In February 2019, the first among Russian cheesemakers, and for the first time in the history of the Guild, Alexey Andreev from Tula region was ordained a knight of the Order of St. Yuguzon, became a member of the International Guild of cheesemakers and received an invitation from the President of the Guild to participate in the Salon and in the Cheese Competition in Tur.
According to Alexey Andreev, the situation in the industry for craft producers is not very optimistic and bright. Those who have the opportunity to invest a lot of money in this - they have prospects, the expert notes.
- The most important thing is not only to make a product, but also to sell it. We have a few categories of shops that know how to sell cheese, it is sold somehow, and there are very few specialized stores, - said the cheese maker. He also noted the lack of quality raw materials for cheeses.
According to Alexey Andreev, in France, cheese making competitions are organized so that buyers pay attention to small productions. These are primarily shops, restaurants, gastronomic boutiques. It is prestigious when cheese production receives positive feedback from professional appraisers. We do not have such a culture yet.
- So far, everyone is happy, we congratulate each other on the medals, but then - nothing happens. Therefore, we participate in such competitions more for ourselves, for self-assertion, to understand what our products are compared to others, that have been in the industry for hundreds of years. Our tasks are somewhat different compared to the ones of our French colleagues, because in Russia there is no culture of cooperation between those who sell cheeses and buy them. It should be created, - emphasized Alexey Andreev.
The domestic cheese industry still has a lot of problems, lack of quality raw materials, falsification in the social sphere, whey processing and multidirectional consumer demand, access to retail shelves. Meanwhile, market participants note that the buyer is focused on quality and tasty products. It is necessary to stimulate its domestic production by all possible measures. The level of consumer confidence in domestic products remains low. And we need to solve these problems together.
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