Main Line native Jake Heller is a bona fide cheesemonger who was recently named the best cheesemonger in the nation.

The 28-year-old has come a long way since his first job as a 16-year-old Lower Merion High School student working as a clerk at Narberth Cheese, writes Jenn Ladd for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I was eating Kraft singles and smoked Gouda before I started working with cheese,” Heller says. “It just blew my mind, this really wide variety of what seemed to be very fancy cheeses that I knew nothing about.”

Now Heller has won the Cheesemonger Invitational, a 14-year Top Chef-style competition.

He beat out 44 competitors across the nation last month at the Brooklyn competition to take the title.

Heller outscored in speed-cutting, speed-wrapping, cheese trivia and blind cheese tasting/identification. 

Though his passion for cheese started at the Narberth Cheese Co., his career really took off while he was a student in environmental studies at Temple University when he got a job at Downtown Cheese in Reading Terminal Market.

Heller started attending food shows and cheese conventions.

Over time, he graduated from a clerk at a cheese store to a true cheesemonger.

Read more about Jake Heller’s performance at the Cheesemonger Invitational in The Philadelphia Inquirer.