Wilmington's Paul Dever Carves 100-lb Cheddar Advent Calendar

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington artist Paul Dever recently carved a giant advent calendar out of nearly 100 pounds of cheddar cheese, as part of a Borden Cheese campaign.

Dever was new to sculpting cheese, he said, but it's not his first time making art from food: last year, he won the Food Network's Outrageous Pumpkins Championships. He regularly works with clay and pumpkins.

For the 55 Days of Cheesemas campaign, Borden wanted an artist to go outside their comfort zone.

"They had to woo me a little bit," Dever said. "I was quite nervous about it."

But the new material ended up working well, except for one problem: you have to keep it cold.

Dever had to build a temporary cold room in his house, as well as buying an additional refrigerator, and that still wasn't enough.

"I had to work really fast," he said. "There were a couple of late nights."

Dever aimed for a traditional advent calendar look, although it was larger than a normal advent calendar, with 55 days — each day beginning Nov. 1, the company unveiled a new cheese product or recipe, available at bordencheese.com/cheesemas.

Dever said he was told it's the world's first cheddar cheese advent calendar. Prior to carving, he tested both cheddar and parmesan and found that while parmesan is firmer, it also can crumble on the inside. So cheddar it was.

"It was delicious," Dever said. "I didn't mind working with it at all. It was just like working with a firm clay."

Dever works mostly with clay, but food sculptures "seems to get more attention," he noted.

To carve details into the cheese, including a barn roof and the phrase "Let there be cheese," the calendar had to be almost three feet tall, which required internal dowels to support it.

"You can never say no to an opportunity, especially when it makes you uncomfortable — then you know you're going to learn something," Dever said.

Dever also carved a larger, 10-inch cheese door that could be animated for daily advent calendar reveal.

Dever's work is available at devercustoms.com.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.