A Spanish restaurant made culinary history by paying an astounding 30,000 euros ($32,800) for a single piece of handmade cheese weighing 2.2 kilogrammes (4.85 pounds), making it the most expensive cheese in the world.
The town of Las Arenas de Cabrales holds a special competition every year in the last week of August where the best Cabrales cheeses are auctioned off to the highest bidder.
In a stunning turn of events, the restaurant Llagar de Colloto in Oviedo, Spain, won this illustrious title by getting hold of the exceptional Cabrales cheese.
The Los Puertos cheese factory in Poo de Cabrales created this exceptional cheese with great care using a mixture of cow and goat milk, which was then aged for several months in the caves of the Los Picos de Europa mountains.
It was the most sought-after item in the subsequent auction after the expert jury unanimously decided that this 2.2 kilogramme masterpiece was the best among the submissions from the fifteen cheese producers who took part in the competition.
The talented maker of this winning cheese, Guillermo Pendás Bada, expressed his appreciation for the accomplishment by saying, “We knew we had a good cheese, but we also knew that it is very difficult to win.”
The winning cheese aged in a cave at a height of 1,500 metres above sea level for an impressive ten months.
It’s interesting to note that for a number of years, Llagar de Colloto has consistently outbid rivals for the title of best Cabrales cheese. They invested 14,300 euros in 2018 to buy the winning piece, and a staggering 20,500 euros the following year. With the acquisition of this world-record-breaking piece of Cabrales cheese, they have now raised the bar once more.
The artisanal production method used to make Cabrales cheese, which is made by hand with raw cow’s milk or a mixture of cow, sheep, and goat milk, is renowned.
It spends several months maturing in the natural caverns of the Picos de Europa mountains, benefiting from the humid environments that encourage the growth of moulds that resemble penicillin and giving rise to its distinctive blue-green streaks and spots.
With 66,226 kilogrammes of this delicious cheese sold in the European Union alone last year, it has become increasingly popular both domestically and abroad.
Llagar de Colloto’s record-breaking purchase not only raises the profile of Cabrales cheese but also exemplifies the enduring appeal of finely crafted foods.
