Earlier this year, Formaticum's Sales & Marketing Manager Emilia D'Albero took 1st place in the Cheesemonger Invitational: Masters competition, earning the title of the country's best cheesemonger for 2025. D'Albero, alongside runner-up Courtney Johnson from Seattle, will represent the United States at the Mondial du Fromage in France this September, essentially the World Cheese Olympics. D'Albero (ACS CCP) and Johnson (ACS CCP, CCSE, PhD) make up the very first all-female Team USA, and Johnson is only the second American to qualify to compete in the Mondial du Fromage twice, having competed in 2023 as well.
The Mondial du Fromage is biannual competition that takes place in Tours, France, and this year's competition features cheesemongers from 15 countries, all working towards the coveted title of World's Best Cheesemonger. For Americans, the opportunity to compete on the world stage is earned through 2 victories: first, a monger must place in the top 3 at the annual Cheesemonger Invitational. Then, they must earn one of the top 2 spots in the biannual Cheesemonger Invitational: Masters competition, where the top 3 mongers from past CMI events are invited to compete against other CMI winners in hopes of hearing their name called to join Team USA.
The Masters competition mirrors the format of the Mondial du Fromage - 9 individual challenges, designed to test cheesemongers across all aspects of their work, including a written test on general cheese knowledge, a 5 minute oral presentation of a cheese of their choice, a blind tasting of 4 PDO cheeses cut in 1cm square (rindless!) pieces, and a perfect .5lb cut challenge involving mystery cheese and absolutely no access to a scale. The day culminates in the notorious Group 3 Challenges - a 4 hour marathon of cheesemongering, where contestants must put together a restaurant quality cheese plate using cheeses revealed only at the start of the test, assemble perfectly paired bites, present a cold dish that transforms an assigned cheese, build an intricate cheese sculpture, and design and assemble a 1 square meter themed cheese display using over 100lb of provided mystery cheeses. The esteemed panel of judges is comprised of top cheese industry professionals from all over the world, providing a variety of viewpoints formed over their combined decades of experience.
In September, Emilia and Formaticum founder Mark Goldman will travel to France alongside Courtney and team coach and CMI founder Adam Moskowitz of Maker to Monger. They will be joined by Maker to Monger's sensory education expert Alex Armstrong and CMI 2021 champion Tommy Amorim of Di Bruno Bros. for support and additional coaching. Having trained for this competition for nearly a year, their goal is simple - for both Emilia and Courtney to be on the podium this year, hopefully with one of them holding the gold medal, as an American monger has never won the Mondial du Fromage…yet.
What does training for the Mondial du Fromage entail? Since November, D'Albero and Johnson have been in constant contact, discussing their ideas, organizing small details like supplies and tools, sharing study resources, and providing each other with emotional support. Both mongers have dedicated a minimum of 2 hours a day to preparing, whether that means recipe testing, studying flashcards, weekly blind tastings, or seemingly endless practice cutting cheese in creative and artistic ways to wow the judges. They have received many generous donations of cheese and other accoutrements from some of the USA's finest cheesemakers and artisans, and they are so thankful to the cheese industry as a whole for the incredible outpouring of support in the past few months. Both competitors have quite literally put their blood, sweat, and tears into this training and are looking forward to giving their absolute best effort and showing the world what American cheesemongers can do!
And if you're wondering what's in a champion's toolkit, don't worry - we'll give you an inside look. D'Albero trusts Formaticum Professional Cheese Knives with Plastic Handles to get those perfect cuts, and even boasts a custom-branded set of Formaticum Parmigiano Reggiano knives. You will never catch her without her 5" Wire Cutter either - simply the best tool for the cleanest, quickest cuts on delicate or soft cheeses. Back in Seattle at her cut-to-order cheese shop Street Cheese, Johnson has her own Professional 4-Knife Set, and also wraps her customers' cheese in Formaticum Reusable Wrap and One-Ply. Of course, the unimaginable amount of cheese in Team USA's fridges are wrapped in Formaticum paper, keeping fresh for cutting and tasting practice.
Follow Team USA's journey to Mondial on Instagram (Emilia's profile and Courtney's profile) and keep an eye on the Formaticum account as well, since we'll be chronicling all our adventures in France, including exclusive cheesemaker tours, cheese shop visits, and more!
