The supreme prizes in this year’s Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards have been taken out by a first-time entry and a much-loved cheese that’s been five decades in the making.

Mainland’s Special Reserve Creamy Blue cheese, by Fonterra Brands, won Yealands Estate Champion of Champions Award for large cheesemakers, while Pukeatua Peak’s Maungatautari goat cheese won the Cuisine Champion Artisan Cheese Award, for smaller producers.

More than 430 cheeses were entered in the 2010 Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards announced at a gala dinner and ceremony at The Langham Hotel in Auckland. The hundreds of cheeses in the Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards were judged in 19 categories all honouring the excellence in the diverse range of cheese New Zealand now produces.

Awards Master Judge, Australian Russell Smith, was impressed with the great diversity of cheeses showcased in this year’s competition which reflects the huge variety now being made in New Zealand. “And the overall standard and experimentation of the cheeses produced here is increasing at a rapid rate.”

Smith notes the extremely high standard of New Zealand’s blue cheeses makes it a difficult category to win, something the Mainland Special Reserve did, as well as being named Champion of Champions.

“The Mainland Special Reserve was excellent; it had a beautiful sweet, nutty flavour and was technically a superbly-made cheese with very even bluing throughout,” says Smith.

“The blues made in New Zealand are absolutely superb, and it’s a category that New Zealand is extremely well known for. So it’s more than appropriate that the Champion of Champions Award goes to the best of the blues.”

The Mainland Special Reserve brand was born in 1999 as a way to encourage mainstream consumers to buy more specialty cheese varieties, such as feta, haloumi and the Creamy Blue, which has now taken out the top prize at this year’s awards. All Mainland cheeses are made using traditional cheesemaking methods and the winning entrant was crafted by the blue cheesemaking team at Fonterra’s Eltham site in Taranaki. 

Eltham is the home of blue cheese in New Zealand; the first non-cheddar cheese variant produced in the country was a blue vein manufactured for the first time in 1951. The original blue mould is still cultured at Eltham on bread crumbs in a traditional manner.

The supreme award for smaller cheesemakers, the Cuisine Champion Artisan Cheese, has this year gone to Fiona and Jeff Graham for a cheese called Maungatautari. It is a hard cheese and one of five goat’s milk cheeses they sell under the Pukeatua Peak brand at nearby markets in the Waikato and to selected restaurants.

The couple’s achievement is all the more pronounced as they are new to cheesemaking. They recently began producing small quantities of hand-crafted cheeses from the goat’s milk collected on their 97ha farm and were delighted with the result. They are first time entrants in the big national awards for cheese  the Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards.

The Grahams have been producing goat’s milk for a co-op for the past 10 years, and now collaborate with Sue Arthur in Putaruru to make their range of hand-crafted original cheeses. In addition to the award-winning Maungatautari cheese, they make feta, haloumi, camembert and a blue cheese.

New Zealand’s favourite cheese is Goodman Fielder’s Bouton D’or Cow Feta, which took out the New World Champion Favourite Cheese Award for a second year.

Henk Lettink, of North Canterbury cheese company Karikaas Natural Dairy Products, is the country’s top cheesemaker in the Cuisine NZ Champion of Cheese Awards. Henk joined fellow Dutch cheesemakers, Karin and Rients Rypma, about two decades ago at Karikaas, a company that has won many Cuisine cheese awards throughout the years.

Henk had been an accountant in Holland, but life at the then-tiny Karikaas dairy company meant he had to turn his hand to everything from making deliveries to producing cheese.

At the other end of the cheesemaking scale was Canterbury’s Emilio Festa, who won the top award for hobbyist cheesemaking. He won a gold medal for his ricotta cheese and a silver for his mozzarella, making off with the Katherine Mowbray Champion Hobbyist mantle in the Cuisine Awards. He also won the Curds & Whey Champion Hobbyist Cheese Award for the ricotta.

Emilio has taken the cheesemaking lessons he learned in his home country of Italy all the way to his kitchen in Canterbury to win the award for hobbyists; cheesemakers who typically produce at home and not for commercial consumption.

The public can view and sample the award winners, and many of New Zealand’s best cheeses, at CheeseFest, from 5-8pm on Wednesday March 3 at The Langham Hotel, Auckland. Tickets are available at the door from 4.30pm.

Click here for a selection of photos from the event.

2010 Cuisine NZ Champions of Cheese Awards

Yealands Estate Champion of Champions Award
 Mainland Special Reserve Creamy Blue – Fonterra Brands

Cuisine Champion Artisan Cheese
Maungatautari Goat Cheese –  Pukeatua Peak Cheese

NZ Cheese School Champion Cheesemaker
Henk Lettink – Karikaas Natural Dairy Products

The Langham Champion Fresh Unripened Cheese
Ricotta – Crescent Dairy Goats

Countdown Foodtown Woolworths Champion Feta Cheese
Kaimai Feta – Kaimai Cheese Company

Innovative Packaging Champion Soft White Rind Cheese
Kapiti Kahikatea Camembert

SABATO Champion Goat Cheese
Selwyn Farmhouse Mature Goat Cheese – Gruff Junction

NZSCA Champion Sheep Cheese
Curio Bay Pecorino – Blue River Dairy

NZSCA Champion Washed Rind Cheese
Galactic Gold – Over the Moon Dairy Company

Ecolab Champion Blue Cheese
Mainland Special Reserve Creamy Blue – Fonterra Brands NZ

GEON Champion Cheddar
Mild Cheddar – Fonterra Lichfield

QCONZ Champion European Style Cheese
Hohepa Tasty – Hohepa Homes

Bureau Veritas Champion Dutch Style Cheese
Vintage Gouda – Meyer Gouda Cheese

NZ Food Safety Authority Champion New Cheese
Maungatautari Goat Cheese – Pukeatua Peak Cheese

Fonterra Champion Original NZ Cheese
Kapiti Mt Herbert – Fonterra Brands NZ

AsureQuality Champion Flavoured Cheese
Hohepa Herb Quark – Hohepa Homes

NZSCA Champion Export Cheese
Maasdam – Karikaas Natural Dairy Products

New World Champion Favourite Cheese
Bouton D’or Cow Feta – Goodman Fielder

NZSCA Champion Cheese Packaging
Puhoi Valley Farmhouse Camembert – Goodman Fielder

Curds & Whey Champion Hobbyist Cheese
Ricotta by Emilio Festa

Katherine Mowbray Champion Hobbyist Cheesemaker
Emilio Festa of Christchurch