Yudy Pulido tells the story of Colombia through her cheeses, ranging from the all-red version, with pulverized bell peppers, to a new product with coca leaf extracts, following a local preparation.
All photos are from the company's website
The story
When in 2012 Yudy Pulido opened “La Granja de San Ildefonso,” a store in the Chapinero neighborhood in Bogotá that she likes to call an “organic market”, she most likely did not imagine that, within a few years, she would become the most important and famous cheesemaker in all of Colombia. To devote herself to the new business, Yudy revolutionized her life and abandoned her previous employment - in which she had to deal with modern languages - with the goal of building a business that would be a link between the countryside and the city.
Yudy was born in Anolaima, in the department of Cundinamarca - Colombia's fruit capital - and grew up and in close contact with the agricultural industry, witnessing firsthand the exodus of farmers to the city and the consequences of that both for agriculture and the standards of living of the people involved. Witnessing this phenomenon led Pulido to establish “La Granja de San Ildefonso,” where she sells and promotes products from small farmers and artisans, in support of the development of the local economy and fair trade. Just three years later, Yudy's business received its first award from EAN University (School of Business Administration) as Best Sustainable Business Idea.
Since then, numerous awards she has received, ones that have increased exponentially since she approached the world of fermented and raw milk. Initially, Pulido produced good quality cheeses, although still very much tied to the European tradition; over the years, however, she has increasingly managed to focus on and enhance the Colombian tradition. “Slowly, I dared to interpret the national territory and give my own character to the cheeses,” she tells 7 Cannibales as she describes her first raw milk and kefir cheeses, some with a washed rind, others with mushrooms, with smoked peppers, with yarumo ash, or with the addition of traditional liqueurs to give distinctive aromatic nuances to the mixture.
The real turning point came in 2019, when she participated in Slow Cheese 2019 in Bra, held by Slow Food international, as Colombia's representative. "After sharing and working in the field with all those expert cheesemakers and gastronomes, I decided to postpone my return to Colombia and continue my journey studying dairy production in Switzerland, Spain, Italy and France. I completed my studies on artisanal dairy production and fermented dairy products in 2021 at the School of the Slow Food International Network Argentina,” she proudly confides of her journey so far. Back in her homeland, she creates “Quesos de Montaña,” her cheese brand.
The products
Today, Yudy's catalog boasts ten raw milk and kefir-based offerings, including: “Cordillera Oriental,” inspired by French morbier, but covered and divided on the inside by a thin layer of mambe - a sacred indigenous preparation made from coca leaves (according to 7Canibales, the brand's most recent and surprising innovation); “Santa Cruz,” reminiscent of French-Swiss Mont d'Or, to which it adds nothing less than renowned Colombian cocoa; “Tupí ,” Pyrenean and Catalan, matured for 75 days and mixed with viche - Afro-Colombian Pacific cane distillate; “Florida,” a cooked, firm, yellowish cheese with a few eyes on the inside and the rind completely covered with mountain flowers; “Andean Forest,” in honor of the tomme de Savoie, from the Haute-Savoie region in the French Alps, but “ translated” to the Colombian Andes.
Despite being her greatest passion, Yudy is not only dedicated to cheese making, but also takes part in editing gastronomy books; she is a validator in clusters for the Colombian dairy industry; she is a consultant for the Maduratto dairy in Tenjo - department of Cundinamarca - and a judge in international cheese competitions. At the World Cup in Brazil, moreover, Pulido made a veritable jackpot of awards: two silver and two bronze medals, among more than 2,000 products from 7 countries.
"I'm so proud to have won awards for Maduratto cheeses and for my mountain cheeses, especially for Santa Cruz cheese, named in honor of my parents' farm in Anolaima. As a master cheesemaker at 34, I am the first Colombian member of the prestigious Guide Internationale des Fromagers, whose mission is to promote the nobility of dairy products and create a network among those who safeguard the knowledge of dairy traditions," she excitedly shares.
