There is currently only one refrigerator containing all three of the American Cheese Society's champion cheeses: Mike Geno's. Geno, cheese portrait extraordinaire, has been commissioned to paint the three winners, and he invited cheese enthusiast Madame Fromage over for a taste test.

Mike Geno was frying shallots in duck fat when I arrived. He cracked eggs and poured coffee while I broke out my camera and notebook, trying to appear collected. The champion cheeses — a whole wheel of Roth Kase Grand Cru Gruyere (3rd Place), half a wheel of Valley Shepherd Crema de Blue (2nd Place), and a hefty wedge of Beecher’s Flagsheep (1st place) — glowed like gold nuggets the moment I opened his fridge.

After a lengthy photo shoot in the rain-washed light, we sat down to feast: two cheese nerds sipping coffee and washing down egg sandwiches with orange juice. We saved the cheese board for last. The anticipation was delectable.

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Check out Mike Geno's cheese paintings here.

Photo by Madame Fromage