World Jersey Cheese Festival

The first ever world Jersey Cheese Festival begins tomorrow with the judging for the World Jersey Cheese Awards. The inaugural event has already been a great success attracting 90 entries from 10 countries.

Jersey cheese entries are arriving from the USA, Canada, France, Denmark, Sweden, UK, Australia, Holland and Rwanda. Rwanda is a bit of a surprise to the organisers as it scraped into the competition at the final hour.

Event organiser, Debra Midgley told Channel Online:

"It’s been a lot of hard work to organise such a major event. Shipping the cheeses in form the various countries has been quite a task but it will all be worth it when we get to taste these wonderful cheeses all made solely form Jersey Milk. I hope this festival will go from strength to strength and really put Jersey on the map as a foodie haven."

Cheese makers actually based in the island are also entering and hoping to scoop the coveted prize of the Worlds Best Jersey Cheese. Jersey Dairy and owners of the Classic Herd, Darren and Julia Quenaullt, will both be entering the competition.

The festival will open to the public on Saturday 24th May as part of the Foire de Jersey. Visitors will have to pay entrance to the Foire but there is no extra charge for the World Jersey Cheese Festival. There is the optional extra cost of £2 if visitors would like to take part in a special cheese tasting session led by Chris Ashby in the Demonstration Theatre. Chris Ashby is one of the UK’s leading cheese experts, she has spent 12 years working with Stilton and has lectured and demonstrated around the world. Her tasting session will offer a rare insight into the Jersey milk product – and there may be a bit of wine or cider to compliment the tasting too.

Chris will be heading up the judging panel, which is made up of a mixture of UK and Jersey experts including Michelin star chef Shaun Rankin, Gerald Fletcher from the Jersey Hospitality Association, and Robert Jones from Jersey Pottery.

The festival will run for the entirety of the Foire until Monday 26th May. The event usually attracts 5000 people a day and with the first World Jersey Cheese Festival it’s expected to be even more popular. Visitors will enjoy demonstrations, tastings, a cheese market, cheese making workshops and a mouth-watering food village. (from CIonline)

Nothing like a nice piece of Stilton.....