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Hörlkofen businesswoman Sandra Schumertl is a member of the International Cheese Guild
Hörlkofen – Business woman Sandra Schumertl from Hörlkofen is happy about a great award. He was named a member of the International Cheese Guild, which has about 250 members in German-speaking countries.
“You must be suggested by someone who is already in the cheese guild,” explains the 47-year-old, who runs a supermarket in the center of Hörlkofen, the center of which is a cheese counter with about 300 different varieties. Cheese specialist Markus Böhmer became his “very valuable” mentor in the cheese guild, as he said. The reception ceremony was held at the Maritim Hotel in Berlin, where Schumertl received a diploma with a ribbon and a medal from the guild, which was founded in France in 1969. “It is a great honor to be one of the greats in the industry,” said Schumertl, who was clearly delighted.
He is a cheese ambassador with heart and soul. It comes out and about twice a week initiates people to the finer points of tolerance. “Taste, smell, combine – enjoy the cheese with all your senses” is his credo, which he passes on his cheese journey. “Anyone who likes to eat well” is part of their target group. The trained cheese sommelier prepares cheese dishes and visits people at home.
A coveted insider tip is the gourmet event in their own shop. The food market will be renovated at short notice and will be transformed into a small cheese restaurant for an evening, where conviviality and fun go hand in hand.
It is a special highlight when these evenings are accompanied musically by daughter Nina, who as a trained singer is currently performing Marcellina in a production of the Munich Chamber Opera in the Nymphenburg Palace – a main character in Mozart’s opera “Marriage Figaro”.
Creativity runs in the family. Schumertl was trained as a retail clerk at Karstadt Oberpollinger in Munich. Even then, the big cheese department was his favorite place to work, he revealed. In 1995 he was trained as a commercial specialist (IHK). In 2018, Schumertl completed an apprenticeship as a cheese sommelier. The specialist received the award “very good” as one of two people in the group of eleven participants. The Austrian WIFI Institute offers this specialist training in Germany in Olching and Hanover.
In 2019, the Hörlkofen resident took over his parents’ business. And now it is accepted in the “Guilde Internationale des Fromagers – Confrérie de Saint-Uguzon”. It accepts professional members from the stages of milk production, cheese production, processing, ripening and sales “who excel or excel in the exercise of their profession”, as can be read on the Guild’s homepage.
The specialist is a member of the Association of Austrian Cheese Sommeliers and the Association of Cheese Sommeliers in Germany. As a jury member for Produkt Austria and the German Agricultural Society (DLG), he is active beyond Germany’s borders. His mission: “Food should be eaten again and have value.” Schumertl prefers to stand behind his counter, conjuring up cheese platters and cheese plates for his customers or looking for new specialties.
Vroni Vogel