Emilia D’Albero ’15 Takes on the International World of Cheese Mongering – and Takes Home the Gold

For Emilia D’Albero ’15, learning languages came easily. She loved studying Spanish and French in high school, but her school didn’t offer Italian – the language she really wanted to learn as a way to honor her family’s heritage. Fortunately, a scholarship from the Columbus Citizens Foundation made it possible for her to travel to Minnesota to attend the Concordia Italian Language Village summer camp. 

“I attended the camp three times in all,” D’Albero says. “By the time I finished high school I knew without a doubt that I wanted to study Italian in college.”

Her search for a robust undergraduate Italian language program led her to Montclair. “I had only been to New Jersey a few times and found that I was drawn to the campus. I met professors who let me sit in on classes and shadow students. In the end, it was the only university I applied to.”

D’Albero’s studies in Italian, with a minor in French, were supported by multiple scholarships. She leaned into Italian culture through study abroad in Florence and Italy, and through special University initiatives including “Business Italian Style.” The project paired Montclair students with prominent Italian entrepreneurs in the design, fashion, art and food industries, which led to writing articles for La Voce di New York, the daily Italian online newspaper. She also used her growing expertise to create English sur-titles for international theater productions, helping to bring the prestigious Piccolo Teatro di Milano’s productions to a wider audience. An honors student, D’Albero also worked as a program assistant to the University’s Inserra Chair in Italian and American Studies. 

When her schedule allowed, D’Albero would relax by cooking for her friends. “There were always lots of people stopping by,” she recalls.”

D’Albero graduated magna cum laude, finishing her degree a semester early. “I moved back home and started working at a local pizzeria,” she says. “I saw that Eataly was looking to hire an events and education intern. It was my dream to move to New York City, and I was confident I had the skills for the job. It all came together.”

Taking on the role meant working weekends as a server to make ends meet, but it was an opportunity to create the curriculum for the famed marketplace’s cooking school. “I was sitting in on five or six classes each week, learning about everything from pizza making to regional menus,” D’Albero says. “I started to think about pursuing a trade.” 

D’Albero’s first choice was butchery but, as she points out, “Who would hire a 20-something with no knife skills as a butcher apprentice?”

Cheese it was, and the rest is history. She began this part of her journey at Campbell Cheese & Grocery and at Foragers Market, both in Brooklyn. At Foragers Market she also did a turn as a butcher apprentice, but by that time she already saw her future in the cheese world. D’Albero returned to Eataly just a few years later to teach cheese classes.

“At the time, Eataly had the largest cheese counter in Manhattan,” she notes. “I had to be knowledgeable about more than 500 products. I managed cheese care and maintenance as well as special orders and events. We made fresh mozzarella daily for our customers, which included restaurants. It was a big job, but it was fun.”

When The Green Grape, a gourmet shop in Brooklyn, offered her a spot as catering and events manager in 2019, no one could have predicted that public events would be shut down by early 2020. “They made me the cheese manager,” she says. “I had to learn on the fly how to curate a selection of cheese and charcuterie in addition to training and managing the staff.”

“Working in a grocery store during peak Covid was physically and mentally exhausting,” D’Albero continues. “I needed more stability. In 2023, I joined Formaticum, LLC, an importer and distributor of cheese packaging and storage products. I love it. I travel a lot for trade shows and sales meetings. I get to work at clients’ cheese counters and train their staff. It’s a lot of fun.”

D’Albero became an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional in 2021 and began creating educational programs at places like The Barnyard Collective in Long Island City. And then she got serious about competitive cheese mongering.

“I had been thinking about the competition circuit since my days at Eataly, after learning about a co-worker who had won awards,” she says. “In 2021, I decided to go for it.” 

First, D’Albero explains, you must win the Cheesemonger Invitational (CMI), an open competition held in New York City. “If you win at the CMI, you qualify for the CMI Masters. The winners of this round go to France to compete at the Meilleure Fromagère du Monde.” 

In 2025, D’Albero won the CMI Masters and she and a colleague, Courtney Johnson, traveled to Tours as Team USA. D’Albero made history as the first U.S. competitor to win the gold. It was also the first time that two women medaled, with Johnson at the podium as well. 

Make no mistake, the Meilleure Fromagère du Monde is as rigorous as any Olympic sport. 

“Competitors come from around the world,” D’Albero says. “First, there is a written test that is legendary for its difficulty. I studied every day for a year to get ready.”

“The day before the event you get two hours in the local market and a limited budget to purchase the fresh ingredients you will use,” she continues. “Then, on competition day, you have eight hours to complete nine challenges.”

These include blindly identifying cheeses, including type of milk, raw vs. pasteurized, manufacturing technology and age. You must also make perfect ½ pound cuts to a random piece of cheese – which sounds relatively simple until you consider that cheeses vary in density. A “secret cheese” segment requires competitors to make a Michelin-quality cheese plate for one person without knowing in advance what cheese they will be using. 

For the oral presentation you get to choose, and provide, your own cheese. “I chose Parmigiano Reggiano,” D’Albero says. “I was able to procure my cheese from a friend in Europe so that I wouldn’t have to risk bringing it on a flight where I might not be able to control its temperature, or worse, where it might be confiscated at customs.” 

“I practiced the challenges every week for nine months to prepare for game day,” D’Albero adds. “During the competition, my language skills were very helpful. I was able to provide my presentation in Italian, and I could help with translation among competitors.”

D’Albero returns to Montclair frequently, meeting and speaking with students in the language programs. “I say yes whenever I can,” she says. “Young alumni who have found success in non-traditional careers bring a lot of value to students. I can show the language students that there is a whole world of work out there for them.”