We caught up with the New Mexico-based monger following her wins on the international stage and in New York as the latest winner of the Cheesemonger Invitational.
Young Cheesemonger of the Year Hanna Lee competing in the Cheesemonger Invitational. Photographed by Tristan deBrauwere.
Hanna Lee has had an enviable career in cheese, as well as a geographically diverse one.
Originally from Washington, Lee’s first foray into cheese was at Asgaard Farm—a goat dairy in the heart of the Adirondacks. She found her footing as a monger after earning a job behind the counter at Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado. Lee started making cheese again during a stint at Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, home of the renowned Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Rush Creek Reserve. Today, you can find her slinging cheese in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Mouse Hole Cheese Shop: the only cut-to-order spot in the city.
In November 2025, Lee made history in Bern, Switzerland, as the first American to win the Academy of Cheese’s Young Cheesemonger of the Year title—an award that recognizes the best and brightest rising star in the global cheese community. She returned to the competitive stage in June of the next year for the Cheesemonger Invitational (CMI); following years of coming in second, she finally secured the coveted trophy by a significant 31-point margin and cemented her place as one of the best cheesemongers in America.
Culture sat down with Lee to learn more about her experiences domestically and abroad, plus the driving forces that led her to become a world champion.
Culture (CM): How did you know the cheese industry was for you?
Hanna Lee (HL): In 2019, when I was working for Whole Foods. That was my first retail cheese job. I just realized how much there was to learn in the field. That’s really what hooked me because I was about a year out from finishing my college degree and was a little lost. I didn’t know what I was going to do if I wasn’t learning and in school.
So, seeing that there was all of this information that I could gather and collect and just keep striving to learn more, I thought, “This is scratching that same itch that I had with school.” And just being able to taste things all the time—that’s fun.
CM: When did the idea to compete for the Young Cheesemonger title first arise?
HL: 2024, when Jake Heller competed. I had never known that the competition existed. But I saw him posting on Instagram that he was traveling for this international cheese competition. I thought, “Wow, that’s really cool.” I had it in my head that I might want to compete the next year.
CM: What did prep for the Young Cheesemonger competition look like?
HL: [For the preapplication stage], you have to submit one of the [Young Cheesemonger competition] challenges ahead of time, which is preparing a cheese board within a certain budget—I believe it’s £60 for six people. [The sponsors] look at your portioning. Is your pricing appropriate for six people? Does your theme make sense? I chose a summer birthday party theme because I was submitting it in August and my birthday’s in August. So I talked about how these [cheeses] all pair with sparkling wine, or a light-bodied red, because that’s what I want to drink at my birthday party in the summer. You just walk them through your whole process and you submit that along with your experience and background. Then that’s sent to sponsors, who are selecting people [to compete], from what I understand. Then, they select the top six competitors and those become finalists. They can be from anywhere as long as they’re 30 or younger.
[When I learned I was going to compete,] it was a little tricky because I was in the middle of the Rush Creek season at Uplands. That’s where a lot of my energy was focused. It was a good place for me to be because part of the [Young Cheesemonger] challenge is tasting and identification—we taste cheese a lot at Uplands. Then there are also cutting and wrapping challenges, which I was doing a lot of for retail sales.
I had done a lot of the prep for Young Cheesemonger earlier in the year, when I was prepping for The Cheesemonger Invitational: Masters and CMI. I had worked at building this base of knowledge and skill for those two competitions that I didn’t have to do a ton for Young Cheesemonger other than what I was doing day-to-day.
People can get so hung up on prepping, but it really is what you’re doing in your job. It’s more about repetition. Reading books can be helpful because it can jog your memory. For Young Cheesemonger specifically, the competition’s questions come out of the Academy of Cheese Level One training program. The Academy of Cheese encourages you—if you’re chosen as a finalist—to complete the associate training, which I did and I think it was helpful.
I’ve been in the industry for a while and I’ve worked at a retail counter for a long time, so at the end of the day that’s what comes down to my success—the years that I’ve put in.
Hanna Lee holding a rack of Rush Creek Reserve at Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin, where she worked as a seasonal cheesemaking assistant. Photograph courtesy of Hanna Lee.
CM: How did the cheese community help you before and/or during the competition?
HL: For Young Cheesemonger, you’re given a list of six cheeses to pick from. I chose Colston Bassett Stilton. Then, you have three crackers you can choose from from Peter’s Yard Crackers. I had a couple of ideas of what to pair, so one day I brought them all into work and I asked, “Can we taste these together? Can you guys give me feedback?” That was the biggest help for me … bouncing flavor ideas off of people.
With [my sponsor] Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Molly Browne was a huge help. She traveled with me to Switzerland. Just knowing that someone was there in my corner and wanted to see me succeed was a great support because otherwise, I would have been on my own.
CM: Do Americans have any advantage in these competitions?
HL: Americans have a different perspective on cheese and I think that can be pretty unique.
In the US, we’re a lot more freeform with our boards, selections, and pairings. Having more freedom built into how we sell makes a difference in the competition. I paired Stilton with Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter—that’s insane to a European. Why would you pair cookie butter with cheese? But the judges loved it and were really taken aback by how well it worked together.
CM: What is your advice for other Americans looking to compete in the Young Cheesemonger contest?
HL: Knowing how to work in grams is important.
CM: Do you think your Young Cheesemonger win helped you blaze a path to victory at CMI?
HL: It helped me see you don’t have to be great at every single little piece of the competition. I didn’t score well in the oral test and I still won. That allowed me to take pressure off myself to perform and win every single category that I could. I realized I just wanted to do well enough and represent myself to the best of my ability—I don’t need to be at the top. That helped me gather all those points that I had for CMI—giving myself permission to relax and enjoy it and say to myself, “If I come in second again, who cares? I’ll just come back again.”
Hanna Lee holding her trophy following her win at the 2026 edition of the Cheesemonger Invitational. Photographed by Tristan deBrauwere.
CM: What drove you to keep trying to win CMI, even after placing second several times?
HL: I had it in my mind that I was just going to compete until I won, as a way to push myself and keep showing that I do know what I’m doing in this industry and even if I don’t win, I’m not somebody who gives up. Once I have a goal, I put my mind to it. As long as it takes, that’s what it takes. Time’s going to pass anyway, so why not keep trying to hit this goal?
CM: What have these accolades meant for your career?
HL: Young Cheesemonger was great for me on an international stage. After I won, I went to dinner with all of the judges from the World Cheese Awards. That’s like everybody in the industry who judges. I got to meet really cool people from India and Norway and Switzerland and everywhere. That was really cool to be there as a bastion of the American cheese community … [and represent] an up-and-coming cohort of young mongers in the US who know what we’re doing.
CMI was really good for me in a different way because it has really helped me locally here in Albuquerque, and our shop.
My partner, David [Myers], bought the shop in June, so two weeks later for me to win a national competition has been great for us. People come in to see the trophy and say, “Congratulations. We had heard about you guys, but we had never come [in], so we decided now’s the time.” It has been great for us to cement our foot as a place in the community that people know. It’s allowed us to purchase more unique cheeses that we hadn’t before because we didn’t know if there was a market. I hope it continues.
CM: How was this a valuable experience for you in terms of competing and attending the World Cheese Awards? What is it like to be part of that energy and international scene?
HL: I had never been at a judging before. Walking into that space of over 5,000 cheeses … the entire back half of an expo hall with tables and tables and tables of cheese—that was such a cool experience.
Before the judging, we did tours of cheesemakers in Switzerland. I don’t know if that’s something that I would have been able to put together without competing. It was really cool to see the small production scale in Switzerland. After the competition, we went on a tour with all the judges to a small traditional cheese farm … they were making cheese in a tiny copper kettle over a fire and it was an experience not everybody gets to see, even if you work in cheese.
Hanna Lee at the World Cheese Awards. Photograph courtesy of Hanna Lee.
CM: What’s next on your horizon? Would you like to compete in Mondial someday?
HL: I would like to judge one year for CMI and see the other side. See what has been happening for the last three years and why this time, it worked out for me and the other two times, it didn’t. Get down into the nuance and also see what other mongers are creating.
Being able to interact with everybody else’s creations would be a really cool experience.
The Academy of Cheese’s Young Cheesemonger of the Year competition is accepting entries until Sept. 20. Selected finalists will be invited to attend the competition, which will occur during the World Cheese Awards in Cordoba, Spain, on Nov. 12, 2026. If you’re interested and under 30 years old, submit your entry here.
Alana Pedalino
Alana Pedalino serves as Managing Editor of culture. Her work has been featured in Bon Appétit, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and more. She loves to write, cook, and kayak. Find her bylines at alanapedalino.com.
