Cheese, Community, and Certification: My Story
It’s October, and yes, I know that means all things pumpkin spice and spooky—and, let’s face it, delicious. BUT it also means it's the month we celebrate our Certified Cheese Professionals in the cheese industry. With that, I decided it was more than appropriate to start my blog by sharing my journey to becoming an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional (ACS - CCP).
I remember March of 2015 fondly. I had committed to taking the CCP exam in Rhode Island and had begun building a huge library of books on topics like cultures, pairings, the science of making cheese, and sanitation guidelines. But what I hadn’t realized after committing to the exam was the cost to sit for this test.
I loved my job as a cheesemonger behind the counter, but let’s be real: jobs in the food industry don’t always allow for extras beyond covering rent, food, and transportation. A fairly big part of my budget went to cheese. Which isn’t a necessity for some people, sure. But I spent 13 years behind a cheese counter, and I have a habit I cannot kick! So when a coworker emailed me about a CCP scholarship sponsored by Sartori, I submitted an essay and promptly forgot about it. Somewhere in the recesses of my cheesy mind, I figured nothing would come of it.
Well, I was definitely mistaken. I would soon embark on an adventure of campaigning for votes on social media, at work, through blog posts, and even in the county jail! Yes, my friends—I took a cheese tray to the jail where a family member was a correctional officer, fed the officers cheese, talked about pairing and careers in cheese, and gained a bunch of votes that night toward winning the Sartori Scholarship!
The best part of this story is that my hard work paid off. I won the 2015 Sartori Scholarship, and it changed my career on every level! After going through the rigorous process of becoming a CCP (yep, I passed!), I returned to my cheese department in Wisconsin and set record sales for the holidays. Sure, I had cheese knowledge before studying for the CCP exam, but I gained insight into everything that goes into all the cheeses that come into our stores, and I couldn’t help but share some of these random facts with customers and coworkers.
I also gained a network of professional contacts and new friends throughout the whole process. Sure, some of us are competitors in the marketplace, but more importantly, we are all working to improve and maintain the standards in the cheese industry. We all learn together and help each other out.
I was nervous to attend the American Cheese Society conference alone, but trust me—you are not alone at ACS! You will find someone to talk cheese with, discover learning opportunities around every corner, and be amazed at how everyone helps one another succeed. I was promoted to the position of cheese buyer for the company I worked for shortly after the exam, and even though I believe I would have been a candidate without ever having taken the CCP exam, I also know that every single day after my promotion, I used some information covered in study groups or on the exam. I am grateful every day that I took a moment to apply for that scholarship and had the opportunity to attend the American Cheese Society Conference and take the CCP exam.
If you are interested in learning more about becoming certified in cheese, please visit cheesesociety.org.
