For the past 25 years Russell Smith has travelled the world sampling food, particularly cheese from many artisan producers.
And despite now claiming to be retired continues to find his judging skills in demand. Home for Smith is the Bega Valley, New South Wales, an appropriate district for a cheese judge to live, being the namesake for an Australian cheese brand.
The son of a milk distributor from Queensland, he admits he might have absorbed a passion for good cheese thanks to his father often getting samples from small artisan producers in the Darling Downs district.
“Unbeknown to me at the time as a kid I was probably sampling some extremely good cheddars and a few not so good. It was also helped by spending some of my youth in France, getting to try all they had to offer there.”
After a stint as a botanist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation he was drawn back to that interest, setting up a cheese retail and distribution business in Canberra in the 1990s.
When he started judging cheeses at the Sydney Royal Show he put his mind to the job of better understanding the science behind cheese making, completing a commercial cheese maker’s certificate.
“I had a friend who had a small Jersey herd just out of Canberra and that provided the opportunity for me to experiment with cheese making.
“Being non-commercial and no threat, other cheese makers were happy to share their insights and results. This helped immensely when it came to judging time and knowing how a certain cheese had been made.”
Unfortunately, the Jersey herd has been sold but demand for Smith’s expertise has not faded.
He sees some similarities between how the NZ and Australian cheese markets have evolved.
Both have moved from highly processed, industrialised offerings that included shelf stable parmesan in a cardboard can to diverse, highly skilled artisan offerings that span the universe of different cheese types.
He appreciates, though, how tough the business is, even in Australia with its 25 million population, let alone NZ’s 4.5m.
But the small scale here has been no excuse for standing still.
“The thing that really blew me away 10 years ago when I first started judging the awards was the standard of your Dutch cheeses. The likes of those produced by Mercer and Meyer Cheese, I did not even realise they existed yet they are a standard equal to any good Dutch producer.”
More recently, NZ cheese makers have stood out for their ability to produce extremely good blue cheeses, with even supermarket standard blues getting the big tick from Smith.
He puts it down to a long history and the stable positions of many cheese makers in some of NZ’s larger processing plants building their expertise and ability to produce consistently good product and sell at a realistic price.
“And when it comes to the Dutch cheeses, you now have the next generation coming into the craft.”
Just as the wine sector has become renowned internationally for its New World experimental approach to wine making, Smith sees the same thing in NZ’s cheese sector.
“You are now seeing so many more styles of cheese come with experimentation. The likes of buffalo, sheep and even red deer milk. It’s that innovation that Kiwis seem to do very well, whether with their product or the equipment they are using.”
This year’s competition had 280 entries vying for 26 trophies.
He is particularly excited by the appearance for the first time of Italian style cheese in the competition, with 28 different cheeses in that category this year.
While including well known favourites like mozzarella and ricotta, it is the arrival of scamorza, stracciatella and stracchino that have excited him.
Two are similar to mozzarella while stracchino is a creamy, spreadable white cheese.
The growing variety in the competition makes his visits to traditional cheese-making regions like Normandy seem mundane by comparison.
“It’s that ability cheese makers here have to just mix things up, try different approaches without being constrained by tradition or process you see in those older regions.”
The evolution of the competition also reflects NZ’s efforts to develop a food culture.
Smith is encouraging about the potential food tourism has to offer beleaguered artisan producers struggling to get their production volumes up.
“We have areas like northeast Victoria, with some cheese makers and some wineries that have that appeal. Taking people to these areas, you cut out a lot of the costs. NZ offers great potential in this respect too.”
An ANZ report last year indicated more than half of visitors to NZ came with a neutral view of this country’s food offerings, compared to 15% in France and Italy.
The potential for food tourism was highlighted in the report, with more than half the visitors going to a farm or orchard and 60% buying a product at home they had seen or sampled on their visit here.
The Champions of Cheese Awards winners are named on March 25.
