Philadelphia cheesemonger becomes first American to win first place in world cheese competition

Philly cheesemonger becomes first American to win first place in world cheese competition

For the first time in history, an American has won one of the biggest competitions in the world for cheese.

Emilia D'Albero took home first place and a gold medal at what is known as the Cheesemonger Olympics in France.

"My teammate, Courtney Johnson, and I are the first all-female team USA," D'Albero said. "They had never sent two girls before."

The two are cheesemongers and sell and help connect customers with cheese and other dairy products. D'Albero lives in Philadelphia while Johnson is based in Seattle.

Both competed in the Mondial du Fromage, where some of the top cheesemongers from around the world come together to go head-to-head.

"We have a written test, blind tasting, perfect cut, a cheese sculpture and then finally a 100-centimeter square plateau centered around a theme," D'Albero said.

It's a total of nine challenges that she practiced for at the Philly Cheese School in South Philadelphia.

"I did the whole competition with two knives and a wire cutter," D'Albero said.

Her career in cheese started 8 years ago and really took off after starting her popular TikTok account called Punk Rock Parmigiano.

Through her work and content, she hopes to educate others about the importance of cheesemongers.

"In other parts of the world, like Europe, being a cheesemonger is seen as a really respected career," D'Albero said. "In America it's not as respected as it should be. It's definitely skilled labor. We have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the cheeses in the case."

That knowledge is what has had led her to taking home a fairly heavy gold medal and its weight isn't lost on her.

"It definitely made me feel a sort of responsibility to portray American cheesemongers as well as I could," D'Albero said. "To say, 'Hey, we're breaking these boundaries. We're going to do this and you can too.'"