COC’s faculty member Herve Guillard and culinary arts student Andrew Courtenay attended the 2016 Wisconsin Cheese Immersion Externship from Aug 2-6.

Requirements for entering consisted of collaborating and submitting an original recipe that uses Roth Natural Melt cheese.

Guillard selected Courtenay, one of his top students, to work together for this program.

Courtenay was surprised when he was chosen to join Guillard, but looked forward to learning more about cheese in Wisconsin, alongside his mentor.

“He makes things fun and makes you think and be creative with the ingredients,” said Courtenay of his mentor.

The process of selecting a recipe took three days to complete with many trials and tweaks, but ultimately lead the pair to a winning combination consisting of a cheese and Nutella-filled donut served with a chipotle applesauce.

“It was a great surprise,” said Guillard of their selection to participate.

“My main objective was to show Andrew how to develop and write a recipe because recipe design and development is a bit of a different exercise, but what a reward to actually win.”

Guillard and Courtenay were among six culinary instructors and students selected nationwide to participate in the Wisconsin Cheese Externship.

“It was an amazing experience to talk with the master cheesemakers and not only get information about their craft, but to also hear their passion for their art and the family culture behind it since most of them are third generation cheesemakers,” said Guillard.

“We were able to see production from small farmsteads and artisan cheesemakers with two to three employees to large manufacturers  with over 100 employees.”

  The event was hosted in partnership with the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Winning the externship, the duo was able to go on a creamery tour, take a cheese making session, as well as a hands-on cheese class led by Emmi Roth USA corporate chefs and award-winning cheese makers.

Guillard and Coutenay also were able to visit to the famous Dane County Farmers’ Market and a dairy farm tour.

“My sincere congratulations to both Chef Herve and one of our star students, Andrew Courtenay,” said Cindy Schwanke, chair of the college’s culinary arts and wine studies program.

“Chef Herve is a talented chef instructor and mentor to our students. He is a true example of doing what matters for our students.”

 “I’ve never been around so much cheese,” said Courtenay. “We easily tried over a 100 different kinds of cheese and Wisconsin is beautiful.”