First off I was late, dawdling this rainy morning. I missed the briefing and my lab coat was too small even for a ten year old child. On a bright note though, the hairnet was just perfect and I was wearing the correct all-terrain underwear and cashmere socks. I’m at the 2008 judging for the Melbourne Specialist Cheese Show (open Sunday 17th August 2008 at Crown) run by the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Association.
I admired chief judge Ian’s red hairnet as he explained the 300 cheeses that lay ahead. Luckily it was split into ten categories. A couple of judges would shortlist each category so we only had to taste 50 or so of the stinkers (or in some cases not so stinky) blind.
Each cheese was scored 25 for flavour, 15 for texture and 10 for the look (and most were pretty good looking).
My category was one of the shorter straws, the curd cheeses. This is one area where Australia hasn’t quite mastered yet. The mozzarella-type cheeses were for the most part good looking, creamy testicular balls, some tasting quite good, but all rubbery. Unfortunately my benchmark is the Italian stuff (you can get it from Kirkfood when it’s in stock), which has the outside texture of plump breast but melts apart.
Enviously, I looked on as Matt Preston cut a manly-sized wedge of a blue cheese casting his expert eye over its veining. That was before I accidentally looked into the cheese spittoon. And it’s probably best to move on…
The verdict
- Australian cheese tends towards creamy and bland.
- Brie-type cheeses seem to be a bit to stiff or a little too runny.
- Not daring enough with strong flavours
- Work needed on the veining of some blue cheeses
- There were some cheeses that I’d have liked to see in the show that weren’t (unless they’d already been knocked-out.
- Australia is best at making goats cheese with some great flavours and textures. Why wasn’t there more goats cheese entered?
- Overall though, the cheeses were a lot better than expected. We’ve come a long way in cheese in the past few years but really need to make unpasteurised products if we are to progress.
The good news (thanks for sending it through Thermomixer) is that the plonkers at Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ ) have announced the terms of its review of dairy processing standards that currently ban, with a few exceptions, anything made with raw milk.
As Will Studd says, there massive local resistance to change. Some of it is from within the cheese industry itself. Gawd knows why.
“It has taken twelve years of lobbying to get to this point , and its very
unlikely another review will be undertaken for another decade . If you care
about good cheese please make a submission ……Without a choice on the production and sale of raw milk cheese in Australia
we will never develop a genuine cheese culture , or experience the authentic
regional flavours of cheese enjoyed by our counterparts overseas.”
So remember if you care about cheese go here now to the Food Standards website and and search P1007. Submissions close 6pm, September 17 2008.
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