2013 Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Championships

Here are some photos from the 2013 Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Championships held on Saturday, April 27, 2013 in Mineral Point. 

Each competitor had 15 minutes to make two sandwiches, one for the judges, and one for display.

You couldn't eat the competition sandwiches, but there were four vendors selling lunch.  We sampled three different sandwiches from Melthouse Bistro, a grilled cheese restaurant that made the trip all the way from Milwaukee.

This is the "Baconmoto" sandwich from Melthouse Bistro, made with Wisconsin aged sharp Cheddar, pecanwood smoked bacon, tomatoes and olive oil mayonnaise on Breadsmith Country French Bread.  My mom, sister, and I all agreed it was incredible.  The Melthouse Bistro cooks grill both sides of the bread before assembling their sandwiches.  Because of this technique, the fillings don't sog out the bread.  This technique especially paid off for the mayo and juicy tomatoes in the Baconmoto.

This is the "Recco" sandwich: Focaccia from Breadsmith and Wisconsin Feta and Fontina cheeses.  Delicious.  You can see it was a little skimpy on the cheese but I wonder if the cooks were just conserving cheese so they wouldn't run out.  (One of the other sandwich vendors had completely run out of ingredients before noon.)

And, this is the "Arla," a dessert sandwich made with Havarti, sweet spiced apples, praline pecans, on brioche bread.  It was basically an apple pie in a sandwich costume. 

We also tried some beer cheese soup from Fox Heritage Farms.  Currently, they are solely a catering company but will be opening Fox Heritage Tavern soon at 131 East Mifflin Street in Madison. The soup was made with Ale Asylum's Madtown Nut Brown Ale and featured lard-popped popcorn on top.  It had a rather disgusting color, but a really full, rich taste.    

There were several vendors including several cheese companies and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, which was giving away free grilled cheese cookbooks.   There were also a few non-cheesy vendors that I think are worth mentioning: 

• Sector 67 - a studio in Madison where engineers, artists, and other creative people can use shop space and tools for a monthly fee.  They had a cool 3-D printer set up that created plastic bracelets as we watched. 
• Miracles on Hoof CR Therapy - a therapeutic horsemanship farm in Spring Green.  I know from past experience that therapeutic riding and hippothereapy are really good programs, so I will give them a shout-out here. 

The event was packed - it was awesome to see so many grilled cheese aficionados.  I ate lunch at a table with a family who came up from Chicago and two ladies from Madison.  The weather was about perfect, and it was a great day for a drive along the hillsides of southwestern Wisconsin.  All in all, a great day and a well-run event!