If you’re into cheese, there’s a documentary for you at the Milwaukee Film Festival, aptly called "The Big Cheese." The film whisks you into the world of international cheesemongering. Cheesemongers are like sommeliers, but for cheese.
The films focuses on an indefatigable New Yorker, Adam Moscovitz, who's on a mission to help the first American speak, sniff and taste their way to a first-place finish at the prestigious Mondial du Fromage in France – the “Olympics” of cheesemongering.
Moskovitz consistently sports specialty t-shirts throughout the film, proclaiming everything from "raw milk rockstar" to #cheeseislife. Moscovitz sat down with WUWM for an interview along with the documentary’s filmmaker, Sara Joe Wolansky. We asked him whether his love of cheese made him feel more Dairy State than Big Apple.
"I've actually never been to Wisconsin." he admits. He's been invited to the biannual Wisconsin Art of Cheese Festival, centered around Madison, but every September when it takes place, he's at La Désalpe, a cheese festival in Switzerland.
"I want to highlight that my first time coming to Wisconsin will be for this film festival," he says. "So, shout out Milwaukee for getting me into Wisconsin for the first time in my life."
"The Big Cheese" will be showing Friday April 24, Sunday April 26 and Wednesday April 29, as the festival's "centerpiece."
An unexpected trajectory with a down-to-earth style
Moscovitz says he "tripped and fell backwards into [cheese]."
"I am a third-generation cheese importer," he says. "My grandfather was one of the first men to import cheese in the U.S. My dad was a pioneer in specialty cheese."
He says he "never, ever, ever thought I'd go into the cheese business," but that after ending his attempt to become a signed hip hop artist and finding his way to cheese, becoming a cheesemonger saved his life.
What is a cheesemonger? Moscovitz says there's a simple way to define that: a cheesemonger cuts and sells you cheese.
"Cheesemongers can be found at what we call 'cut to order' cheese shops," he says. "So, any place where you could actually talk to somebody and be like, 'Can I try that cheese? What's that cheese made of? What's the smell of that cheese? Where'd that cheese come from?' The person on the counter that's answering those questions, giving you samples and cutting your cheese to go home with. That's a cheesemonger, a merchant of cheese."
Moscovitz is resolute on not letting cheese go the way of wine. "I don't want cheese snobs," he proclaims. "I love cheese. I think cheese is in everyman's food. I think it's welcome at every meal, and so I'm hell-bent on keeping it cool, fun and approachable, and so I show up in a cow costume with tattoos ... in an effort to be a silly distraction so people feel comfortable eating as much cheese as possible."
'The Olympics of Cheesemongering'
The Mondial du Fromage in Tours, France was started in 2013 by Moscovitz's friend, who wanted to create more of an international flair-type contest, more of a master's level event, going way beyond just what one might do at a cheese counter.
There's a written test about cheese. Competitors have to cut a perfect 250-gram piece of cheese. There's a blind taste test. They've got to identify a cheese's country of origin and age. There are oral presentations and the cheese plateau, a sculpture platter.
Moscovitz is a coach, and he describes the rigorousness of getting people prepared for this.
"I mean hours upon hours upon hours of preparation. First and foremost, the written test is is is a master's level exam. So you have to be an expert in dairy breeds, cheese making, lineage, history, for the taste test, the glossary of cheese ... we're talking hundreds of different cheeses that it might be and and then more difficult, the cheese, the way it tastes, let's say, on the West Coast of America is different than how it might taste in the center of France."
There are additional challenges "like a composed cheese plate, a cheese prep, a cheese transformation, a cheese plateau and a cheese sculpture," he says. "We're talking ... if I was to guess, between 10 and 20 hours per week for months leading up to this event."
He says of the cheesemongers: "They're an encyclopedia. Cheesemongers need to have an encyclopedia knowledge of cheese. They need to have a very refined palate. They need to actually not just know cheese, but know wine, know beer. Know how to cook."
A film for and by cheese lovers
The film features many delectable shots of cheese, and some scenes of French town life as well as shots of Sweden. It may have, in part, been a dream job for filmmaker Sara Joe Wolansky.
Moscovitz highlights the effort it took to pull off. "I mean, first, just getting people to understand the difference between a cheese maker and a cheesemonger. The question you asked is a question that we've been asked by almost every potential distributor, like the lack of understanding of the the amount of different cheese and the amount of different flavors."
Second, Moscovitz says nobody thought Wolansky could actually create 90 minutes about cheese and cheesemongers and make it interesting. "They had to navigate filming in multiple states and multiple countries with a language barrier and and pulled off 90 minutes of a rollercoaster ride of emotional exuberance and fear and sadness and joy and confusion and heat."
Also, the couch with cow patterns that you'll see documentary subjects sit in to be interviewed in the film? It's Wolansky's.
"I just own that couch. I literally — for that first shoot we had two production assistants basically come to my fourth floor walk-up and carry that couch down the stairs, and then it went right back in my living room." Cows were her favorite animal when she was a kid.
"I just organically do love cheese," she says.
Milwaukee Film is a financial supporter of WUWM.
