Willi Schmid, artisan cheesemaker, was one of eight children growing up on the family farm in the rolling, pre-alpine farmland of the Toggenburg in eastern Switzerland. Fascinated from an early age by the mysteries of milk’s leap to immortality, he left school to go straight into the cheese business, and worked his way around the country learning to make some of the classic varieties – Tilsiter, Appenzeller, Emmentaler, Sbrinz – for which Switzerland is famous. Today, Schmid epitomises the new generation of Swiss cheesemakers, bringing novelty to a formerly staid market.
乳酪製作大師威利•施密德(Willi Schmid)兄弟姐妹共8個，從小就生活在瑞士東部吐根堡河谷(Toggenburg)阿爾卑斯山腳下起伏農田中的一座家庭農莊。施密德很小的時候就癡迷於牛奶巧奪天工的神奇，學校畢業後就徑直幹了乳酪這行，他在全國各地打工，學習一些經典乳酪的製作方法——太爾西特乾酪(Tilsiter)、阿彭策爾乾酪(Appenzeller)、埃曼塔爾乾酪(Emmentaler)以及Sbrinz硬酪——這些乳酪在瑞士家喻戶曉。施密德現在是瑞士新一代乳酪製作師的代表人物，把新奇注入了這個先前已經停滯的行當。