Renowned cheese carver -- yup, I just wrote those words -- Sarah Kaufmann is, at this very moment, inside the hallowed walls of Lambeau Field, hard at work creating a cheesy tribute to the NFL champion Green Bay Packers.
Is there a more poetic way to salute the heroes of America's Dairyland? I think you'll agree not.
Kaufmann is a Wisconsin native and she's chipping away at a 640-pound slab of yellow cheddar as part of this week's United States National Championship Cheese Contest, which takes place in the atrium at Lambeau today and tomorrow from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Judging is slated for 10 a.m. until noon Thursday.
There are more than 1,600 entries from 30 states -- you can carve butter, too, you know -- in what event organizers claim is "the largest dairy product competition in U.S. history."
Kaufmann has studios in Cincinnati and San Diego, where she creates the hundreds of cheese sculpture commissions she's received in the past 15 or so years.
Here's a video of ESPN's coverage of her carving at the Super Bowl in Texas, where she created a sculpture out of a 150-pound block of cheese.
You can see some of her work at her Web site and follow her on Twitter. Or you can head over to Lambeau this week and see her while away the time whittling away the curd.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
