NBN Book of the Day Patrick McGuigan and Carlos Yescas, "One Cheese to Rule Them All: In Search of the World's 100 Best Cheeses" (Murdoch Books, 2025)
Jan 20, 2026
Join cheese aficionados Patrick McGuigan and Carlos Yescas as they dive into the delicious world of cheese. Patrick, a cheese writer and World Cheese Awards judge, and Carlos, a cheese scholar and expert on Mexican cheeses, share their fascinating insights from their book. They explore the history and criteria of the World Cheese Awards, the evolution of British cheesemaking, and the importance of protecting regional varieties. With passion and humor, they contemplate what truly makes a cheese the 'best' and reveal secrets about cheesemaking you never knew!
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First Winner: Blue Cheshire
- The first World Cheese Awards winner in 1988 was a blue Cheshire that later went extinct.
- The early competition had only about 250 entries and 19 judges, but still transformed that cheesemaker's business.
Britain's Cheese Revival
- Postwar industrialization decimated Britain's farmhouse cheesemaking, dropping from ~3,500 producers to fewer than 100.
- The 1980s food revival, travel, and celebrity chefs spurred a rediscovery and resurgence in artisan cheese.
Logistics Democratized Winners
- Creating consolidation points globally allowed small producers from Latin America, India, and Africa to enter the World Cheese Awards.
- Logistics and judge diversity directly shifted medal distribution beyond Europe.
