Wisconsin Dairy Farmers React After Windy City Steals Cheese Title

WISCONSIN — Chicago was picked the king of cheesiest cities in a listing that spanned the United States, but dairy industry experts said Wisconsin still has some bragging rights in the dairy game.

LawnStarter found Chicago to be 2022's best city for cheese lovers out of 180 cities ranked by cheese accessibility, quality and affordability. This comes as a blow to Wisconsinites as the top Wisconsin city, Madison, landed at No. 7 on the list.

But don't despair, because there's a catch — it's likely that other cheesy cities still use Wisconsin cheese in their markets and dishes.

"We’d love for every city in America to fight for the cheesiest city as long as they’re eating Wisconsin cheese," Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin vice president of communications Suzanne Fanning told Patch, "Which we know that often times, they are!"

Of all cheese made in Wisconsin, 90 percent is sold outside state lines, with Chicago being a top customer and lining its store shelves and deep-dish pizzas with Badger State cheddar or mozzarella, Fanning added.

Some famous Chicago pizza restaurants like Lou Malnati's and Giordano's use Wisconsin cheese. Giordano's even has a Wisconsin Cheese logo painted on the wall of one of its dining rooms, Fanning said. Lou Malnati's said on its website that it's been getting its cheese from a Wisconsin dairy for the past 40 years.

Wisconsin also has high standards for its cheese, being the only state that requires a license for making cheese and the only place outside of Switzerland for to offer a Master Cheesemaker program, Fanning said.

So even if Wisconsin fell behind this year, people from the rest of the country still rely on our carefully crafted and wildly popular cheese.