2022 CMI Recap

Now to some of you readers out there, this might be a confusing statement.  Yes, we all know it’s the sounds that cows, goats, and sheep make, but why are we shouting it in our blog?  Well, because this is a Cheesemonger Invitational (CMI) recap of course!  If you, or anyone you know has attended CMI, you know that yelling “MOO BAA MAA” at the top of your lungs is not just expected--it’s required.

What is the Cheesemonger Invitational?  It’s a beloved event in the cheese community that celebrates cheesemongers.  Oftentimes, we celebrate the makers, but this event shows a lot of love for the people that sell our products.  The work of a cheesemonger is hard work, and this event is a big THANK YOU to all the mongers out there.  This event was created by Adam Moskowitz, the CEO of Larkin Cold Storage and of Columbia Cheese.  Adam, aka Mr. Moo, is a passionate man who exudes a love for cheese and cheesemongers.  He is a champion for the cheesemongering community.  To find out more about Adam and why he created the Cheesemonger Invitational, follow this link to an interview with Adam and our friends at The Cheese Professor.

CMI currently occurs two times a year; once in January in San Francisco, and again in June in Brooklyn, NY.  It is a three-day long event for the participants.  The first two days are some serious educational days so the mongers can learn directly from their favorite makers and form life-long friendships with fellow mongers.  As someone who participated in CMI before (no, I didn’t win or make the top 10), the educational days are incredible.  The inspiration you gather from meeting your favorite makers and hearing them passionately talk about their farms, creameries, animals and cheese is invaluable.  Even better?  You make some amazing cheese friends!  Day 3 is competition day.  The competition begins and the mongers’ skills are put to the test.  There are multiple aspects of this competition that test the technical skills, encyclopedic knowledge and passionate salesmanship of each monger.  It’s a long day, but worth it!  What happens next?  Well, to quote directly from the Cheesemonger Invitational, they “throw one hell of a party to celebrate the finalists, watch them compete on stage, and crown one of them as the best cheesemonger in the country.”  The best part?  It’s open to the public so all you curd nerds out there can attend, cheer on your favorite finalists, eat a ton (and we mean a TON) of cheese, and party with cheese peeps.

The Caves of Faribault is a Silver Sponsor to this event.  We like to join the entire Cheesemonger Invitational community in honoring the mongers by attending this event.  Connecting with mongers and the general cheese lovin’ public while sharing our beloved Blue cheeses is the best way to spend the day!    This was our first year back in NYC since 2019, and we have missed it.  You may have heard the cheese people say “cheese friends are the best friends” and it is events like this that make that statement ring true.  This year was also incredibly special because the Midwest represented HARD.  The First Place winner of the 2022 Summer Cheesemonger Invitational is Cheesemonger Extraordinaire Cara Condon, who currently works at Beautiful Rind in Chicago.  Our friend in cheese, Randall Felts, owns this shop.  You can hear more from Cara and Randall about CMI in this article from The Chicago Tribune.  Locals in the Minneapolis-area can visit the Third Place winner, Jared Kaufman at France 44 to check out his impeccable mongering skills.  (There is also another CMI winner, Samuel Schonberg, who took second place in 2018 at the first and only Chicago competition, who works at France 44 too!).*

Check out this article in the New York Times to learn more about the Summer 2022 New York Cheesemonger Invitational.  The Cheese Professor also wrote a great recap of the event you can find here.  Wanna know more about this event?  Check out the Cheesemonger Invitational website for more information.  Like videos?  Follow these links to YouTube to see some of the event in action!  Some of our favorite short videos are here and here!

 

*We wanted to mention the other competitors who made it into the Top Five at the 2022 Summer CMI.  If you are ever in NYC or Portland, make sure to visit these mongers.  Second Place went to Reese Wool of Murray’s Cheese Central Station, Evey Suelzle of Portland’s New Seasons Market took Fourth Place, and Nathalie Baer Chan of Murray’s Bleecker Street rounded out the winners in Fifth Place.