Artisan Row Food Design + Strategy’s Post

Check out our team member Tori Boomgaarden! This girl knows her dairy.

Contestant: Tori Boomgaarden Competed: Fall 2007 School: SDSU Current Role: Senior Scientist at the Artisan Row, Product Development Consultant Tori started her journey to dairy judging using one of her best qualities – tenacity. As mentioned previously in Erika’s story, SDSU is rather competitive when it comes to WHO can be on the team. While dairy products evaluation is part of the program, how you place in the class determines who is on the team for Regionals and Nationals. Tori was just short of making the cut 😬. She approached Dr. Baer and asked him if she could train with the alternates and continue to hone her skills for the Regional Contest. In order to compete, she judged as an alternate for Dr. Charlie White’s Middle Tennessee Team. She was now armed with time to train and the following year she competed on the official team for SDSU and placed in 3 categories in 2007; cheddar 🧀, ice cream 🍦, and yogurt 🍓.    During the contest, CDPEC hosted a career fair. She met with some individuals at Kraft including Virgil Metzger, a long-time contest supporter and cheddar judge. “Being at the contest and having the opportunity to meet with the people at Kraft that day was just the connection I needed to start my career,” recalls Tori.    Involvement in the contest did not stop there! Kraft had hosted the regional contest for several years and Tori began leading organizing the Regional Contest, judging butter 🧈 and learning the scoring program for Regional and National. In 2016, the board asked Tori if she would step into a new volunteer role as the National Contest coordinator. She helped develop a new scoring system and served that role for 3 years. When asked if she uses her skills today, she simply replied, “these skills are tools that I use on a daily basis in product development and used for dairy products and other categories. Describing products accurately is critical to develop a successful product. You learn to troubleshoot and improve or modify formulas to bring delicious products to life, it’s a mix of art and science that I love.” Tori continues to be an active member of the board and serves as an Ice Cream 🍦 judge for the contest! 🐄 🧀 🧈

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She sure does! We're happy that you continue to support what she does for our non-profit! Thank you! ❤️ 🥛 🐄

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