Meet the Cheesemaker

Bill Carter always says cheese

Tempo’s chief cheesemaker Bill Carter was born in New Zealand in 1947. In 1965 Bill began his career in cheese in the town of Waihi, as a general hand. Four years later Bill was encouraged by his boss at the time to explore a career in the dairy industry.

In 1965 he made his first cheese, a block of Cheddar that was exported to the UK market where Bill hoped his creation would find its way to the Queen’s table at Buckingham Palace. Though the cheese did make it to the UK, it is unknown if the Queen had the chance to enjoy it.

Bill recalls with fondness the time he spent learning to become an artisan in cheese making. He especially enjoyed learning the many steps, techniques and even the risks that grocery shoppers never know about.

Bill remembers how physical cheesemaking was when he started out. “The making was extremely physical and demanding, where we had to work under pressure in order to meet deadlines taking to consideration PH and Temperature.” Bill also talks about his good fortune at learning the cheese business at a time when it was becoming automated “Starting my career at that special time has enabled me to make cheese manually and automatically”

“It’s a wonderful career, very rewarding if you are prepared to work hard, it’s like been an artist but in this case you can also eat your work.”

Working at Tempo Foods is wonderful for Bill as he loves all dairy products. Though Cheddar was once his favourite cheese he is now partial to Parmesan, especially if paired with a good Shiraz.

Although Bill is thoroughly in love with cheese, if he was stranded on a remote island his food choice would be Allure Yoghurt: “I will be happy surviving on it..but please don’t make me choose the flavour..I love them all!”