Eleftheria Cheese, a Mumbai-based artisanal creamery, had reason to celebrate big this Diwali. The festive day brought news of the brand winning a silver rating at the World Cheese Awards held in Spain. For Mausam Jotwani Narang, founder of Eleftheria, this is a moment of validation for her seven-year-old enterprise as this is the first time an Indian cheese brand has participated in a global event and won.
The World Cheese Awards are also referred to as the cheese Olympics and is a means for cheesemakers from around the world to showcase their talent and dairy craft. The competition is held annually and is organised by the British gourmet food journal publisher, Guild of Fine Food UK.
This year alone, the awards had 4,079 entries from 49 different countries.
Elefeteria’s Brunost is the one that took the prize away. The Norwegian-style, whey cheese with its deep, caramel brown colour and nutty fragrance is all things umami and unique. Cow milk consists of about 87% whey, leaving only 13% in milk solids. After producing other cheeses, the team from Eleftheria collects the whey to give it a new life as a special cheese. The whey is combined with fresh milk, cream and cooked down till the natural sugars present in the dairy caramelise and produce the signature brown colour. While the texture of Brunost resembles chocolate fudge, the complex bouquet of flavours is a party in the mouth. Nine hours of slow cooking results in notes of salted caramel while also harnessing a deep savoury flavour without any added sugar or salt.
How a hobby cheesemaker became an award-winning brand
Narang was first introduced to the world of cheese in Germany as a student. She was immediately intrigued as everything she tasted both in terms of both flavours and textures, was completely different from anything she had eaten back home. Later, while pursuing her masters in the UK, she started experimenting and making her own cheese, spending hours in the kitchen. On her return to India, the amateur cheesemaker decided to continue making her cheese and finally launched her brand in 2014 at a farmer’s market in Mumbai. Over years of practise and trials as well as training under specialist cheesemakers in Italy, Narang finally managed to turn her cheese experiments into the fine artisanal varieties that the brand retails today. Eleftheria now has its own website and is available in Foodhall stores in Mumbai and Delhi. The brand also supplies to restaurants like The Bombay Canteen and Taj Hotels.
A big win for Indian cheesemakers
The World Cheese Awards brought in a lot of firsts for India. Apart from Eleftheria’s award, this was the first time that there was an Indian judge as part of the judging panel. Mansi Jasani of Mumbai-based The Cheese Collective, a platform and store for artisanal Indian cheese, was nominated and invited to be the first Indian judge by the Guild of Fine Food, UK. She was also a super judge who was responsible for nominating cheesemakers for the super gold category. “So a lot of firsts for India! First cheese to enter the competition, first cheese to bag a silver! (A well-deserved Brunost from Eleftheria got one of the 604 coveted Silver stickers). Stoked to be the first Indian Judge and first Indian Super Jury! A very very proud moment to see India on the global cheese map and hoping for more cheeses to come in this Olympics of Cheese i.e., the World Cheese Awards!” said Jasani.
The awards are a validation for the Eleftheria team as well as Indian artisanal cheese. It has paved the way ahead for the world’s largest milk producing country to up the ante on handcrafted small-batch cheese.
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