MY CAREER
My father Ueli – a universally popular cheesemaker in a village in the Bernese Oberland – took me up to the mountain pasture for the first time when I was 4. So this was where we got the lovely milk I looked forward to so much every morning soon after getting up. I was immediately smitten with the cows – and knew there and then that I was embarking on a lifelong involvement with everything to do with cows and their milk.

Right after leaving school (an occasion for much celebration) I asked if I could spend a season up on the pasture to learn cheese-making from scratch, and mother and father raised no objection. Of course I had already learned a lot from my father, but had more in mind than simply using the same old recipes over and over again. I wanted to work on my own creations.

At 22 I was already THE cheesemaker in the Bernese Oberland, no question about it. The fame of my creations had penetrated the remotest valleys, and cheese enthusiasts came from far and wide to taste and buy. Before long I felt the urge to look beyond the valleys and Alps, so I travelled around the world to swap my own ideas and knowledge with experts from other cultures.

When Reto, Ueli and Hans-Peter from Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux Research Station ALP asked me whether I could help them to organize the 5th IDF Symposium on Cheese Ripening I was not altogether sure what I was letting myself in for. But I felt so sorry for the 3 desperados that I simply couldn’t refuse. Now I am very happy that I agreed. The Symposium has been a tremendous success and I have made many new friends in the Cheese Community.

Now I am infected with the cheese virus as well and there is no prospect of a cure, so in future I shall be getting in touch every so often with a Cheese-Inside. Please sign on for the newsletter.

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