Here is a picture to delight everyone in the food and restaurant world who has ever met Afrim Pristine, cheese guru and son of Mr Fatos Pristine of the highly esteemed Cheese Boutique. Afrim is one of the most charming, helpful and hard-working people in the world and I have rarely been so pleased as when I heard he had been awarded yet another honour, this time being declared Maître Fromager by the highly respected Guilde Internationale des Fromagers and Confrérie de Saint-Uguzon, headquartered in Carpentras, France. Afrim will be travelling to Morges in Switzerland in April for his induction ceremony. He is the youngest Maître Fromager in the world! And that must surely be a source of pride to all Canadians.
But who is this Saint Uguzon, you ask? I found the answer on the Confrérie’s web site. In 1969, it seems, Pierre Androuet, founding provost of the Association, was conducting research into the canonization of a 16th-century shepherd from the Cavargna valley, near Lugano, on the Swiss-Italian border (1669 m altitude). The shepherd was called Uguzo Uguzon, otherwise known as Lucio, and it is thanks to him “that thermic caseation was discovered,” according to the web site. By which I think they mean he figured out that warming up milk made cheese-making easier. Lucio was able to make more cheese than his neighbours and he would give these extra forms to the poor. The post-mortem miracle required for his canonization has to do with a natural spring in the place where he died, the waters of which have healing virtues for eye diseases.
“The cult of San Lucio-Uguzon,” continues the voice of the Confrérie, “attracts a lot of people for his birthday (July 12th), but the greater solemnity takes place the day of Saint Roch (August 16th), a popular Italian-Swiss celebration in the whole region, under the friendly eyes of Italian customs for which San Lucio becomes a free zone, in honour of the patron Saint of Cheese (caseari in Italian).”
