Fox Valley cheese carver Landwehr gained global acclaim
FREEDOM – What started as a childhood 4-H activity turned into a decades-long passion that brought Troy Landwehr global recognition.
Landwehr first tried cheese carving in 1988 at the inaugural Little Chute Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival, where professional cheese carvers invited 4-H kids to learn how to use pottery tools on cheese.
After Landwehr carved cheese at the festival in ensuing years, word of his talents spread. He was hired for jobs carving anything from Mount Rushmore to a life-size replica of Abraham Lincoln, for events ranging from local weddings to promotions by major companies like Disney.
Troy Landwehr died Oct. 24 following a short battle against an infection.
Landwehr grew up north of Little Chute and attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where he got a degree in graphic design.
In addition to being a world-renowned cheese carver, he was the owner of Kerrigan Brothers’ Winery in Freedom, which opened in 2000. He made all the wine sold at the winery and personally designed the wine labels.
Karin Landwehr, Troy’s mother, said friends will remember her son’s gentleness and kindness.
“He was a very positive person,” Karin Landwehr said. “That was just his nature, that he would always find something good about something or somebody, and he was like that from just a little kid.”
While speaking with The Post-Crescent in 2008, Troy Landwehr said his cheese carving success was a bit unexpected.
“It started as something fun and entertaining to do, and as years went by, I got more and more jobs beyond the Cheese Festival,” he said. “It’s more of a novelty thing.”
In 2002, Landwehr was invited to create cheese sculptures for both the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Milwaukee and a “Monday Night Football” game at Lambeau Field.
In 2006, after images of a swan sculpture he created at the Little Chute Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival appeared in an article in “Newsweek,” he was invited on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
After that, he made more television appearances and traveled around the country and as far as London and China to make his cheese creations. In 2015, he set the Guinness world record for the world’s largest cheese sculpture, a 1,524-pound cheeseburger.
He started his winery in the lower level of his family’s carpet and drapery business, later moving into its current location, at his grandparents’ farm following their death.
“He was very creative,” Karin Landwehr said. “If you asked him to do anything, he could do it.”
Last year, Troy married his wife, Alena. The couple met when she visited the winery.
“We just fell in love so fast and loved doing everything together,” Alena Landwehr said. “All of his friends and family said that the life he spent with me was the happiest he had ever looked in a long time.”