Synne Qvenild has been a judge in the World Cheese Awards, project manager for the NM in cheese, long-standing customer supervisor at the cheese counter and is also project manager at HANEN.

-"My most important cheese tip after several years as a customer supervisor in the cheese counter at Gutta på Haugen and Maschmanns Matmarked, is that you have to find out which cheese flavors you like. Many people eat cheeses that others like instead of developing knowledge about which cheeses they like themselves .The reason for that is that they feel they know far too little about cheese and start at the wrong end. You therefore have to start by mapping out what you already know you like, in relation to consistency, ripeness, fullness, type of milk and country.

Many people think that they might not like blue mold or strong cheeses, but that can often be a misunderstanding, you just haven't found the right cheese for you yet. Be brave and try a new cheese based on what you know you like. For example, if you like firm cheeses with "salt grains", you may also like sweet blue cheeses with crystallization in the blue mold. In the same way, if you like Parmesan, you may well like Holtefjell XO from Eiker Gårdsysteri or Bufar from Valdres Ost. Furthermore, if you feel that you have to put jam on the cheese for it to taste good, it may well be that you should buy slightly milder cheeses.

It is important to practice describing what you like about the cheese. Can you associate the taste with something else? What does it taste like? For example, do you know the onion and cabbage flavor in brie? Or do you smell honey and nuts in Comté? Maybe you smell a little mushroom in the crust of the Camembert? This is probably where many people have a bit to go on. In a hectic everyday life, we forget to feel what the food tastes like. This is the funnest part of eating cheese."