World Champion cheese maker Puis Hitz visits the Chiswick Cheese Market.
World Champion cheese maker Puis Hitz visits the Chiswick Cheese Market.
by Fran Warde
What a triumphant day we had at the Chiswick Cheese Market! The sky was blue, shoppers arrived in their droves, and our stalls were filled with outstanding cheeses, including many winners from the British and Irish Cheese Awards.
The day was crowned by a very special visit from Puis Hitz, the 2025 World Champion cheesemaker of Le Gruyère AOP from the Vorderfuligen Swiss mountain dairy.
His cheese was selected as the best out of more than 5,500 cheeses from around the world, judged by 250 global experts who sniffed, tasted, and inspected each entry.
After progressing through multiple rounds, it reached the final lineup of 14 Supreme Champions, where Puis’s cheese was ultimately chosen. Our very own Perry Wakeman championed it for its rich, brothy umami flavour — a cheese that simply calls you back for more.
It was a great day for the Swiss!
We were honoured to welcome such a globally recognised cheesemaker to the market.
Puis spent time wandering the stalls, tasting cheeses, meeting makers and mongers, and appreciating everything the market has to offer.
Alfie from The European Fine Cheese Company, who imports Puis’s champion cheese, had it available on his stall and described meeting the maker as a “career high.”
Puis enjoyed chatting with Roger of White Lake Cheese about his wonderful award-winning goat’s cheeses. Justin of No. 2 Pound Street shared his Stichelton, which Puis greatly appreciated for its balance and rich paste.
Bianca Mora offered superb nuggets of Parmigiano Reggiano. When asked about his favourite British cheese, Puis paused thoughtfully before saying, “The British make great blue cheese.”
Puis runs a highly traditional, carefully regulated dairy set in green pastures just outside Bern. He produces eight wheels of cheese a day, seven days a week, using milk from six local farmers who all live within one kilometre of the dairy. The milk is delivered fresh each morning and evening.
This rich, pasture-fed milk is gently warmed in copper vats, and cultures are added to begin the transformation into cheese. The curds are then poured into moulds, pressed, and shaped before being taken down to the cellar and soaked in a brine bath for 24 hours. After this, the cheeses are placed on shelves, where they are brushed daily, washed with brine, and rubbed with a little dry salt for the first 10 days. Over the following 18 months, they are carefully turned and monitored until the final result emerges: the world champion Le Gruyère AOP Vorderfuligen all made under the skilled eye of Puis Hitz who joined us at the Chiswick Cheese Market on Sunday 19 April.
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