The Real Cheese Project launches People’s Cheese, with live tasting and public vote

Following its launch earlier this month, The Real Cheese Project has revealed plans for People’s Cheese 2024, a new competition that will put the best of Britain’s artisan cheese to the public vote. For its inaugural year, People’s Cheese will focus on Britain’s territorials, with the ‘Heritage Edition’ judging categories including Cheddar, Stilton, Red Leicester, Caerphilly, Cheshire, Double Gloucester, Lancashire, Wensleydale and Dunlop.

Created to help the cheese loving public discover the makers and mongers that make British cheese so great, the awards will begin with Round 1 at Chiswick Cheese Market on Sunday 19 May, with this free public tasting forming part of ‘Cheesewick’s’ 3rd birthday celebrations. Those attending the market in May will be invited to taste, ponder and score each of the territorial categories, with nine heats taking place throughout the day.

The winners of each heat will be announced at the end of the day, based entirely on the public vote, and the favourite in each territorial category will go through to the semi-finals at Chiswick Cheese Market on Sunday 21 July. During a ticketed judging event hosted by some of the industry’s most respected curd nerds, the nine semi-finalists will again face the public vote, with the top four going through to this year’s People’s Cheese final in October.

Flipping the traditional awards scheme on its head, People’s Cheese 2024 evolved from the Great British & Irish Cheddar Challenge; a live online tasting broadcast from Bra, Italy as part of Slow Food’s Cheese festival. Following huge interest in the inclusive and accessible nature of the competition, which saw Quicke’s Extra Mature Clothbound Cheddar landing the People’s Choice 2023 trophy, People’s Cheese will return in its place with more cheese, more styles, more rounds, more judges and more noise for real cheese in the UK.

James Grant, co-founder of The Real Cheese Project, commented:

“Hot off the heels of our launch, we’re so excited to be bringing real cheese to the masses with People’s Cheese 2024! We have over 1,000 incredible artisan cheeses in Britain, all with wonderful stories to tell about farming, sustainability, craft and community, but to protect our cheese heritage we need people to discover them, eat them, love them and support them. People’s Cheese is just one of the ways that we will be championing real British cheese and encouraging more shoppers to buy artisan over industrial, and we hope to see hundreds of them taking up the mantle at Chiswick Cheese Market and getting stuck in!”

Cheese lovers will be able to join The Real Cheese Project from September this year, with members receiving a box each month, containing a brand new cheese newspaper and a wedge of cheese with a story to tell, supported by an online tasting session later in the month. In addition, 5% of all profits will go into a Real Cheese support fund, which will be donated to initiatives that protect, develop and progress real cheese in the UK.

Round 1 of People’s Cheese 2024: Heritage Edition will take place at Chiswick Cheese Market on Sunday 19 May, with nine judging heats running between 10am – 2pm.

For more information, visit www.therealcheeseproject.co.uk.