Learning beyond the competition

The experience of competing and winning the “Best Cheesemaker” award at the 2nd edition of the Brazilian Cheese World Cup continues to bear fruit for the cheesemaker Vitor Gomide. 

Coming from a cheesemaking family, the young man became the best cheesemaker in 2022, during the second edition of the World Cup. In addition to the national recognition, he also adopted the two cheeses created for the competition. The first, made during the first stage of the competition in Uberaba, was a tribute to his daughter and was named Lis.

The second, which earned Vitor the title of best cheesemaker, was inspired by a French reinterpretation. The winning cheese mixed French-Brazilian elements, where the cheesemaker explored elements that referred to the proposed challenge - it had to be an original cheese, with a thin, cylindrical rind that melted in the mouth and with a Brazilian vegetable element:

“The Lavoura cheese was actually created with the Frenchman (Arnaud Sperat, president of the competition) in mind, so we thought of one of their cheeses, the Morbier cheese, which has a line of gray charcoal in the center. Thinking that we were going to present it in São Paulo, we thought of a souvenir, taking a special coffee and putting it in the center, so it was a Morbier-style line.

Then we got a specialty coffee, the family kind. And, looking at the land where the coffee was produced, we saw that they plant banana trees around the plantation in order to protect it, so we had the idea of covering it (the cheese) with the banana leaf. And the name “Lavoura” comes from the coffee plantations,” he explains.

Vitor pleased the taste buds of the eight judges (four French, three Brazilian and one Spanish) when he presented a cheese with coffee, wrapped in a banana leaf, and won the Super Gold medal at the World Cheese Championships.

Now, in 2024, Vitor will once again be subjected to the rigorous judgment of the judges, because he has entered Suri cheese, this one in honor of his second daughter - who also has the same name - in the Cheese and Dairy Products Competition.

The cheesemaker sees the opportunity to take part in the World Cup in 2022 as a great challenge: “The World Cup of Cheese helped me, when I took part in the Best Cheesemaker competition, with my cheesemaking “sense” of being challenged. To see if we really have the ability to make a cheese like the one requested.”.

And he leaves a tip for the candidates: ”instinct will be the best ally”.