It has not been easy to bring the 4,079 cheeses participating in the 33rd edition of the World Cheese Awards, the most prestigious cheese competition in the world.
Although the organization provides 14 “consolidation points” around the world, where cheesemakers can bring their products to participate in the contest, it is not easy to move all the cheese later to the same place.
“There are a lot bureaucratic paraphernalia to be able to export the cheeses ”, confirms John farrand, CEO of The Guild of Fine Food, the British organization that organizes the veteran competition, which opened in London in 1988.
Although the World Cheese Awards were born as a contest and fair of modest size, with the objective, explains Farrand, of “supporting small artisan cheese makers”, today they are a showcase to which all the cheese shops go. A super gold, the highest distinction awarded by the contest, means putting your business on the map, wherever it may be, and surely your stocks will be exhausted for years.
The World Cheese Awards in Oviedo
Since 2008, when the contest left London and was held in Dublin, the World Cheese Awards have been changing host cities. This It is the third time that it is celebrated in Spain, after the editions of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias and San Sebastián. The contest, in reality, should have reached Oviedo last year, but had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
Today the Palacio de Congresos de Oviedo – better known in the city as “el centollo” – is a hotbed of cheese professionals and journalists who surround the space reserved for judges, where all the cheeses are being tasted since 10 in the morning.
In total, each group consisting of two or three judges must try between 40 and 45 cheeses of all kinds, to select the different medals (bronze, silver, gold) and choose, from each table, the best cheese, which will receive the precious status of “super gold”.
“Each cheese is judged on its own merits, we do not give a fixed number of medals, each cheese is scored and given what corresponds,” explains Farrand. “But there is a super gold that comes out of each table of 40 to 45 cheeses. We have 88 tables, so there are 88 super gold. These are tried again, by a jury of 16 global experts, and each one chooses their favorite cheese, which are the ones tasted in the final. “
In this final, to be held from 16:30 In the afternoon in the auditorium of the congress hall, the 16 supreme judges test all of them again. “They are discussed, they are scored, and we choose the world champion,” explains Farrand.
Spanish cheese factories seek to improve positions
In the last edition, held in 2019, an American blue cheese, made with organic cow’s milk by the Rogue Creamery Dairy. Of the 16 best cheeses, only two were Spanish.
This year, playing at home, the Spanish cheesemakers – who have set up their positions next to the jury space – hope to win some of the jackpots. The nerves are noticeable. The level has grown a lot in recent years, but any cheese factory, no matter how small, can lead the cat to the water.
“The reason this was founded was to promote artisan cheese making,” concludes Farrand. “In the 70s and 80s there were a lot of mass-produced cheeses. This continues to happen, but, not only because of us, there has been a world revolution around cheese. There is increasing interest not only in cheese, but in general around how food and drinks are made, the soil, the territory, and everything around it. The consumer is more and more interested in this, and people, therefore, are more interested in making good cheese ”.
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