There was a big dairy event in Sao Paulo, and Eleftheria Cheese won three of India’s four awards. Its founder, Mausam Narang, speaks to Firstpost about creating a new type of handmade cheese and the challenges of selling it in India.
Indian handmade cheese has never been talked about around the world, but Indian single malt has. No, that doesn’t mean we don’t make good cheese. The results from the Mundial do Queijo do Brazil 2026 show that some of them might even be truly unique.
The international competition for cheeses and dairy products took place earlier this month in São Paulo, Brazil. Four Indian cheeses got big prizes. Eleftheria Cheese from Mumbai won the top award, the Super Gold, for its French-style brie cheese, Gulmarg. They also won a Gold for their Norwegian-style whey cheese brunost and a Silver for their Belper Knolle-style cheese Kaali Miri. The Nordic Farm in Ladakh also won a gold medal for its Yak Churpi (Soft).
This is Eleftheria’s second win at the world level. It has been on the podium a lot of times at the World Cheese Awards. Mausam Narang started the cheese-making business in 2015, and it now sells to restaurants and a growing number of direct customers.
A decade ago, this category didn’t really exist in India. We talked to Narang about how he built it and what it takes to make and sell cheese in India.
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You have won before, What was different about this time?
The first competition we ever took part in was the World Cheese Awards in Spain in 2021. Things were just beginning to get better after COVID. We sent brunost, which is a brown Norwegian cheese. We didn’t even know if it would make it because it got stuck in customs. It did, though, and got a Silver. That was pretty amazing because no one was expecting anything. Not even an entry from India was expected.
From then on, we took part every year and won a few times. This one in Brazil was unique because it was held in a new place with new tastes and judges. That was the first time our Gulmarg brie-style cheese won at that level. Along with that, a churpi made from yak milk won. This is a very unusual cheese from the area.
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What was the start of Eleftheria?
Because I couldn’t find the kind of cheese I wanted to eat when I got back from studying abroad, I started making my own. It’s still not easy to get to, but things are slowly changing, at least in metros.
In my kitchen, I began making cheese. Then I understood that if I needed it, so did a bigger group of people who were likely more experienced travellers with more refined tastes.
Being one of the biggest milk providers in the world, India gives us the milk we need. It seemed like a natural next step. We began in 2015, and businesses were buying from us within six months. It quickly turned serious.
The market had a clear hole. We began with new cheeses like fresh mozzarella and burrata. Most of these were brought in from other countries or across the country. But these cheeses, like paneer, need to be eaten the next day. Better if it’s fresh. The cooks were very happy that it was made with local milk and brought to them fresh.
Then, during Covid, when we started selling directly to customers, we saw that they liked it. They put our cheeses in their pantry. They were breakfast food for some people.
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Why is it hard to make a brie-style cheese like Gulmarg, especially in a place like Mumbai?
Firstly, the affinage, or getting older. It needs very precise control over the temperature and humidity. Along with paneer, the cheese starts out without a rind. Over time, it gets this bloomy rind. The name “Gulmarg” comes from the way the rind looks, like snow-covered mountains. When it ages well, it gets gooey and mushroomy.
But you have to keep changing your process because it’s hot and humid where you work and the milk changes with the seasons. It’s not France. You won’t get the bloom or the right texture and taste if you mess up any step.
We’ve made rooms for older people that are managed by temperature and humidity. Basically, walk-in spaces that we change based on the cheese.
How about milk? Does Indian milk make a difference?
We use both cow’s milk and goat’s milk. We don’t use buffalo milk because it has more fat than other milks and doesn’t go well with some fresh cheeses. But cow’s milk is better for things like Gulmarg.
We also use milk from goats that live on a farm in Maharashtra that we’ve worked with for seven years. It gives you flavours that are much richer and nutty. We get our food from farms all over Maharashtra, and we’ve been able to do that over time. Because we need the standard to remain constant, we only work with farms that are on the same page as we are. We pay more for that. The rennet we use is not animal, so none of our cheeses are animal-based.
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