I LOVE FRENCH CHEESE!
It’s a bit of a strange statement from a Welsh man, living in Suffolk, but let me explain.
As a child, every year, my hard working parents were able to afford a 2-3 week holiday in France. So every year, we met our best friends, the Davies family, and off on an adventure we would go. And what a place! The culture, the people, the unlimited beautiful little villages, rugged coastlines and of course.... the cheese!
It seemed to be everywhere! Sweet, nutty Ossau-Iraty, oozing Reblochon, pungent Époisses. To a small boy, the average supermarket seemed to have counters as tall as a Pyrenees mountain and as long as the rugged coastline of the beach at Anglet.
So I almost feel like a traitor to nostalgia when I recommend a British Brie..... SACREBLEU!
You see, British cheese has changed, diversified, grown more adventurous. And none more so than my most local cheese, Baron Bigod. Born from the love a cheese maker, with the help of a French man and a few Montbeliarde cow’s, Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore and the team at Fenn Farm have created something truly magical. When it’s ripe, and it has to be ripe, the soft face oozes in anticipation. The flavour strong, slightly sweet, finished off with a hint of mushroom on the rind, the smell pungent yet inviting. When it’s ripe, there is no better unpasteurised Brie style cheese in the world!
So get some, get yourself to your local cheese destination, drive to a beach, tear open a baguette, thumb on some Bigod, and watch the world go by.
Vive la France! J’adore le Baron!
