 
Amazing
Cheese
France
has amazing cheese. I eat that amazing cheese when
I’m in France. But I don’t go to France to buy amazing French
cheese and bring it back to England. I will go to France on business or
holidays, but I don’t return with a boot full of French cheese.I agree
with the French cheese specialists who focus on French cheese, and with the
Italian cheese specialists who focus on Italian cheese. I totally
disagree with British cheese specialist focusing on
non-British cheese! As there is an amazingly good and exciting choice of
cheese in this country I focus on top-of-the-range British cheese.
Britain is
the really fascinating cheese country
It is with cheese as with food: the
most fascinating and innovating things don’t always come from
France. France has many more good cheeses (and bad cheeses for that
matter) than all other countries put together. However, most French top
cheeses have been around for decades, if not centuries. For pure cheese
excitement, inventiveness and surprise in the higher quality echelons Britain
has in my opinion more to offer.
Take
Brie as the best known cheese in France and Cheddar as the best known cheese in
Britain. There are three types of Brie: Meaux, Melun and (its
alternative Coulommiers. There is some difference between the three, but
it is not a lot. And the good ones are possibly not quite as good as they
used to be. Then take Cheddar and Cheddar alternatives. I’ve
got Montgomery, Isle of Mull, Broadoak, and two Lincolnshire Poachers (one more
mature than the other). That is 5 (without counting the cheddar alternatives)
in total, differing in flavour and texture! It is because of lack
of space more than anything else that I don’t have Keen, Westcombe,
Dayles and Quickes.
There’s
nothing wrong with Gorgonzola, Bleu d’Auvergne, Roquefort, Morbier,
Dolcelatte, Danish Blue and many others. But do I need them if I can have
Colston Bassett Stilton, Dunsyre, Exmoor, Blue Vinny, Blissful Buffalo,
and Blue Lanark from Britain? Considering how good
British blue cheese is, the answer is: No! Just as an example I
quote an elderly French gentleman who tasted Blue Lanark and remarked:
“This tastes as Roquefort used to taste 50 years ago.” I
guess it was a compliment.
Choice and
more choice
You
will find mild, medium and strong cheese in my list of about
35 cheeses.
You will find hard, medium and strong semi-soft, and soft cheese,
and there is creamy and crumbly cheese.
There
is cow’s milk cheese. And for those who have cholesterol and / or
lactose problems, or who have allergies, or simply like its flavour, I have a
large range of sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses, including blue
ones. Even in the best cheese shops of France you will be hard pressed to
find so many.
I
am steadly increasing the number of South-Eastern cheeses: I now stock 3
ewes’, 2 goats’ and 5 cows’ milk cheeses from Kent and East
Sussex.
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