You would think that in the state of Wisconsin we might have a decent amount of cheese carvers around, it is the dairy state after all, but you’d be wrong. We caught up with one of the few carvers in the state, Troy Landwehr who has been doing this since he was 11-years-old at the Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival (Cheese Fest) in Little Chute.
At that time, the event planned to have kids carve cheese against the professionals, and that’s exactly what Landwehr did. He and some other 4-H members had to take a one-hour crash course on carving cheese at Simon’s Specialty Cheese. He said that from there, things kind of fell into place.
The kids went on to carve cheese at the state fair and for multiple promotions with Wisconsin’s dairy board and Landwehr kept on perfecting his craft. According to Landwehr, there are only about five professional cheese carvers in the whole United States.
Landwehr explained that as he’s carving the cheese, half of his job is to entertain and promote Wisconsin dairy, especially when it comes to the cheese side of the industry. That’s one of the reasons why as he’s carving away at a block of cheese to create a sculpture, he’s also handing out pieces of the block to spectators so they can taste what he’s working with.
One factor that makes a big difference when trying to carve is the type of cheese. For example, he said that most of the time he’s working with Mild Cheddar. “Mild Cheddar works the best. It has the right consistency and density of all the cheeses,” he explained. “Other cheese is either too hard and will crumble…other cheeses are too soft.” If the cheese is too soft it could easily lose its strength and fall apart. That’s why if he needs to use a softer cheese, it’s mainly used as a filler for color and texture.
Since he does a lot for specific clients, he always warns them that if they want a decently large sculpture done, they need to order it in advance so the cheese has time to age otherwise things could take a turn for the worse. He suggests that the cheese has at least three months to age before he carves it. “If you get something that’s too young, as you carve into it, what will happen is that it’s like making a sand sculpture and only 80% of your sand sticks together…because the curd hasn’t had time to become one consistent, straight form yet,” he said.
He explained that he does a lot of carvings for fairs, weddings, corporate events, and grocery stores, but he’s also traveled a decent amount to carve as well. For example, he went all over the country with the Sam’s Club Roadshow, he’s been to Hong Kong, Northern China with UW-Extension, London, and even Ireland. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of different, great opportunities to carve cheese throughout the years,” he said. “The longest I’ve worked was probably with Cheez-It for eight years. We did an ongoing promotion every Fourth of July.”
Landwehr has also made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for carving a giant cheeseburger for a company in California! So it’s safe to say that he’s found a unique way to promote Wisconsin cheese across the country and all over the world.
You can check out the full interview with Landwehr on our agriculture podcast page.
