SAY “CHEESE!”

A total of 3804 cheeses entered from 6 continents and 42 countries competed for the Oscar of Cheeses at Bergamo (Italy). The event which took place in October was the 32nd edition, saw a cheese from the United States win the top prize for the first time in its history.

The Rogue River Blue from Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon, was named World Champion Cheese. 

To be honest, it had never crossed my mind that the US were a great cheese country, although I’ve had some Monterey Jack in the past with tacos in Tex-Mex restaurants. But is seems like they’ve caught up with the old continent now. Another country which was in the top sixteen is Japan, a place I’ve always associated more with raw fish than cheese. I’ll have to start being a little more open-minded in future and look for cheeses other than my favourites which are Camembert, Brie and Blue Stilton which I really discovered in this country. Before that, in Algeria, I ate mainly Edam which we called the “fromage rouge” for its red protective wax or La Vache Qui Rit, the Laughing Cow. On a few occasions, my mother made some kind of cottage cheese by curdling full-cream milk and lemon juice and cooling it in a muslin cloth. Once dry, she wrapped the cheese in fig leaves which she sometimes gave away to neighbours and relatives. 

Mind you, it is only since visiting my cousin in Dieppe in 1979, that I began really understanding the fuss around Camembert. Her husband took me to the town’s Saturday market where he traipsed from one cheese stall to the next, feeling, prodding and sniffing various local Camemberts. It was only at the sixth or seventh stall that he decided to part with his money. He explained that the Camembert was “fait” which means “done” as in ready to eat that day. 

Speaking of cheese, in September, a new restaurant (left) opened its doors in Covent Garden selling cheeses on a conveyor belt in the same fashion as the chain, Yo! Sushi. Pick & Cheese offers over 25 varieties of British cheeses on colour-coded plates on a constantly moving cheese bar, along with a wide choice of charcuterie and wines.
I think that if I lived in London, Pick & Cheese could become one of my favourite haunts, as I am very partial to a plate of cheeses accompanied by a good red wine. 

One of the best cheese trolleys in the region used to be served at Twenty-One Queen Street in Newcastle, Terry Laybourne’s first restaurant which, in the eighties was the first place to boast a Michelin star. 

Terry moved on to open other restaurants in the North-East but the memory that place and the cheeses it offered will always remain with me.