Cheese is a serious business in France. General de Gaulle once famously remarked that it is impossible to govern a country that produces 246 different varieties of the stuff.
If any product symbolises the visceral attachment so many French people have to their terroir — an untranslatable term that more or less means the region or area they hail from — it is cheese.
From creamy Bries, to tangy, nutty Cantals to pungent, blue-veined Roqueforts, there is no question that France’s national cheese board is truly a wonder to behold.
Which makes it all the more surprising that British cheeses are slowly starting to find their way onto French tables.
Sebastien Bale is a 25-year-old cheesemonger who sells his products at nine markets around the Breton capital Rennes, including the nationally renowned Marche des Lices, one of France’s biggest held every Saturday in the city centre.
He has been selling two British cheeses — a Stilton called Colston Basset and Montgomery, a quality farmhouse Cheddar — for the past four months.
”The trick is not to tell people what the cheeses are when I give them a sample to taste. The chauvinism is always, always, always there,” he explained.
”With the Cheddar for example I’ll give them a piece and ask what they think. Often they’ll say ‘it’s a Cantal’, then the after taste will arrive and they’ll say ‘no it’s something different’ and it’s then that I tell them it’s an English cheese and they’re obliged to admit that it’s excellent.
”If I broke the news to them before, they’d almost certainly say it was OK but nothing special,” he said.
But Bale says once his customers have tasted his Cheddars and Stiltons they almost invariably come back for more. ”Both are selling really well. I reckon with my small business I’m selling around 40 kilos of Cheddar a week and almost the same amount of Stilton, despite the fact that the Colston Basset is one of the most expensive cheeses on my stall,” he said.
Bale said he first discovered the delights of English cheeses when he visited quality cheesemonger Neals Yard Dairy in London’s fashionable Covent Garden while on holiday.
”I had heard of British cheeses, but like most French people I had preconceived ideas about them being frankly not very good. Then I tasted those real cheeses in London and it was a revelation,” he explained.
On his return to France, Bale decided to begin selling quality Cheddar and Stilton, and as luck would have it he found that his wholesaler was already in contact with Neals Yard Dairy.
Aside from Bale’s supplier, the British firm also provides Stiltons and Cheddars to four other French wholesalers and sells direct to 15 cheesemongers in Paris and a further four in the provinces, as well as to the British ambassador’s residence in Paris.
Company sales director Jason Hinds said persuading his French customers to stock British cheeses was actually surprisingly easy. ”From the outset we decided to target some of the most renowned cheesemongers in France,” he said.
”It’s true that when I first started talking to these people around 10 years ago, they would turn their noses up when I suggested they stock British cheeses. But as soon as they tasted the products they were convinced.”
Hinds blames British cheeses’ bad reputation in France on the fact that most French people have never had the chance to taste quality products.
Their opinions have as often as not been formed by the industrially produced, vacuum packed, artificially-coloured cheeses still found in many a British supermarket.
”Between the 1960s and 1980s British cheese companies essentially exported their low quality seconds to France, so it’s frankly not surprising that our products had such a bad reputation there,” he said.
But, like Bale, Hinds says French tastes really do seem to be changing.
”When we started exporting to France around a decade ago, we were perhaps selling half a pallet of cheese a month. Now it’s six pallets. And last Christmas one of our customers even said that Stilton was outselling Roquefort, which isn’t bad,” he said.
Hinds’ next big French challenge will be to try to introduce Gallic gastronauts to the delights of other cheeses produced outre manche.
”We’re looking into the possibility of exporting an Irish cheese called Coolea, which is similar to a Dutch Gouda as well as Doddington, a hard cheese made in Northumbria,” he said.
Back in Rennes, the news that new British cheeses could soon be wending their way over the channel is music to Bale’s ears. ”It’s clear there are other cheeses to discover.
”I’m keen to go back to the UK to visit producers in the regions, find out how cheeses are made. Last time I discovered the Cheddar and Stilton almost by accident. But the next visit will be for work. We need to change people’s ideas,” he said with relish. – AFP
