Brisbane Cheese Awards, David Costello, The Courier-Mail, 14 June 2009 12:33pm

WHEN it comes to French-style farmhouse cheese Camille Mortaud is the real deal. The owner of Gympie Farm Cheese was milking his mum's goats at the age of eight.

The curds were produced in the corner of the kitchen of the family's home in the village of Archigny, near Poitiers in western France.

That expertise was has won medals in Sydney and Melbourne and was recognised again last night when Mortaud's Chevre Matured was judged the Best Queensland Cheese at the Brisbane Cheese Awards.

His triumph capped another big night for the locals with five Queensland producers winning gold medals at a gala dinner at the Royal on the Park.

While Mortaud is justly celebrated for his cheese and a wonderful farmhouse butter, winning at home means a lot to him.

``It's a great thrill, it's incredible,'' he said yesterday. ``This is what cheesemaking is all about. For me, it is a very traditional art.''

Most of his product is sold through farmer's markets throughout south-east Queensland. This means a lot a travelling but he wouldn't do it any other way.

``The markets mean very direct feedback from customers. It's very friendly,'' he said. ``They tell us straight away what they think of what we sell.''

Other Queensland producers were celebrating yesterday.

Andre and Meredith Morris of Witches Chase picked up gold medals for their white mould and washed rind entries.

Frank Gallo won gold for the tilsit produced at his Gallo Dairy on the Atherton Tableland.

There were some new faces in the awards list this year.

Carolyn Davidson of the Towri Sheep Cheesery at Allenview in the Gold Coast hinterland was chuffed to win gold for her Frisky Fetta.

Emmos Fine Foods, run by Annette Emmerson at Thornton in the Lockyer Valley, scored a medal for goat fetta.

``I was flabbergasted to win,'' she said yesterday. ``We are only babies. I only got my licence to make cheese in May 2007.''

The show's champion cheese was a King River Gold from Milawa Cheese Company.

Milawa managing director David Brown, also the president of the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers' Association, told the dinner that there were some positives for the industry in this time of financial crisis, climate change and swine flu.

The drop of the Australian dollar against the euro had made Australian cheese good value when compared with imported product. There was also the realisation that it was better to eat local than to create carbon emmissions by flying cheese from Europe.

``The French way is that they will eat a cheese from around the corner, from the next village, then the same region,'' he said. ``Never from overseas. They know how to live.''

Awards president Norris Lewis praised the strong showing by Queenslanders and urged local producers to gain exposure by supporting the show.