If you’re a cheese judge, judging, say, 225 different cheeses over a two-day competition, you have to spit. You taste, you chew, you masticate and then you spit… It’s not a pretty sight. But the choice is consuming 6½ lbs of cheese. Or so Michael Howell told a gathering of us the other day as we sat in a private salon in the TIFF Bell Lightbox building, tasting cheese. Chef Howell (of the excellent Tempestuous Culinary in Wolfville, Nova Scotia) was one of 8 judges at this year’s Canadian Cheese Grand Prix, the biannual competition to find the best cow’s-milk cheese in Canada. There are 19 categories in the contest ranging from Fresh Cheese to Cheddar Aged more than 3 years and including some fairly arcane ones such as Best Fresh Cheese With Grilling Properties and Best Flavoured Cheese With Added Non-Particulate Flavouring. From these 19 champions one Grand Champion is chosen. Two years ago it was Louis d’Or, a superb Jura-style cheese made by Fromagerie du Presbytère in Quebec – and indeed, Louis d’Or was back in the medals this year, winning the Swiss-type Cheese category. Its stablemate, Bleu d’Élizabeth also won both the Blue Cheese and Organic Cheese categories. They were two of the best cheeses we tasted at our luncheon – almost as good as the one-year-old Grizzly Gouda from Alberta’s Sylvan Star Cheese Ltd which won the Gouda category or the amazing Gunn’s Hill Five Brothers from Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese, a terrific fromage like a cross between an aged Gouda and an Appenzeller. And it was up there with the Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar from Cows Creamery on Prince Edward Island that took the Aged Cheddar (more than 1 year up to 3 years) prize…
Yes, we tasted many heavenly cheeses that day and I shall seek them out in the months to come at Cheese Boutique in the West End and at My Market Cheeses in Kensington Market. And which of them was declared the overall Grand Champion? None of the above! No siree. This year’s Grand Champion was a fresh cheese. A ricotta. Okay a really really good ricotta from Quality Cheese Inc. in Vaughan, Ont. A rich ricotta made from whole milk and possessed of a firm, creamy texture. But a ricotta none the less.
Chef Howell was obliged to explain to us how this could be. Each category of cheese has its own criteria and is marked accordingly. The ricotta received very high marks in its own category, higher than any other cheeses in theirs. Ergo… It would be like choosing a champion from each style of restaurant in Toronto. Perhaps Pizzeria Libretto would win the Pizza category with 90 out of 100. And then what if Hashimoto or Sushi Kaji only scored 89 in the Japanese category, and Scaramouche only 89 in the Grown-up Restaurant category and Buca only 88 in the Cool Italian lists, and so on? Pizzeria Libretto would, peforce, be named as the best restaurant in Toronto.
But who am I to say that a deep, luscious, complex, resonant, seductive blue cheese shouldn’t lose out to a mooncalf who can’t even lisp his own name? It’s a funny old world.
I salute the Quality Cheese Ricotta! And indeed it was heavenly in a little pudding Jason Bangerter rustled up as a finale for the tasting – a kind of panna ricotta topped with strawberry and lavender crumble and edible petals, paired with good old Cave Spring Indian Summer Late Harvest Riesling. I offer my commiserations to the oh-so-worthy runners-up. And my thanks to Dairy Farmers of Canada who are behind the whole thing and organized the tasting for the scribes.