“MasterRind”

Town Crier with

Justin Tunstall

Retail consultant, shares with us his cheese selling experience

• “Sticky fingers”
• “Everyone’s a winner”
• “Myths and legends of Turophilia”
• “When ‘cheese’ is not cheese”
• “Don’t disrespect the Cheddar”

What qualities make a good cheesemonger? That’s a question we were looking to answer recently at the British Cheese Awards, where a competition was run to identify Britain’s Best Young Cheesemonger, sponsored by Anthony Rowcliffe & Son, now in their third generation of cheese specialist

The first round of the contest challenged candidates to cut cheese to a specified weight (without the aid of scales!), and to wrap it neatly. The next round tested the contestants’ ID and deduction skills: seven cheeses were selected from the 911 British Cheese Awards entries and put on a table; we asked for notes on what sort of cheese was on display and, if possible, the name of the cheese. The responses were very impressive; the cheesemongers giving their reasoning as to the type of cheese from the clues offered by rind, paste, texture and taste. It showed that each of the young cheesemongers have an excellent understanding of what goes on in their cheese counter – and how to assess a cheese that’s new to them. We finished the competition with a quick fire round of trivia questions, contestants sat in a black chair a la Mastermind – or MasteRind, as someone quipped.

When we totted up the scores, there was just a handful of points between them – and the eventual winner, Mihaela Mercasi from House of Bruar in Pitlochry, pipped the runner-up by a single point. Michael Eavis, Royal Bath and West President, presented the trophy to the winner and it’s testament to the entrants’ professionalism that none of them tried to tap him up for Glastonbury tickets!

Getting to meet the contestants gave me a real insight into the varied routes through which young people have entered the cheese business and learned their trade. One contestant had been shown the ropes by her grandfather – and demonstrated superb knife-handling skills to boot! Another had been through a formal training scheme with her employer, who runs a small chain of cheese shops. Others had been shown the rudiments by their bosses, but had chosen to read cheese books, taste and learn as much as they could from talking to producers, wholesalers and of course, their customers. They had taken varied routes to their high level of proficiency.

Interestingly, at the overall British Cheese Awards dinner, we were given a short introduction to the Academy of Cheese, which looks to launch later this year. This initiative, suggested initially by Mary Quicke in 2013, will offer four tiers of qualification, the first level geared to appeal to amateur cheese aficionados as well as professionals, who will be encouraged to progress to the pinnacle as Master of Cheese. The goal is to demonstrate knowledge, professionalism and pride in cheese.

It was a delight to meet the six young contestants in the competition, and it’s really exciting to think that there will shortly be a common route on offer to deliver higher levels of competence across the whole industry, where the prowess demonstrated by these young cheesemongers can be the norm rather than the exception.