London Food Detective

Beef butchery and cooking masterclass

I sometimes get invited to events during the work day that i'm unable to attend, but sometimes send my glamourous assistant i.e. my wife, along instead.  Here's her take on a recent EBLEX Beef event...

I love meat! And recently, along with much of the population, I've turned into a bit of a meat snob. I care about where my meat comes from and how well the animals were cared for. Therefore, I was delighted to be invited along to an event run by the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX).

EBLEX exists to enhance the profitability and sustainability of the English beef and lamb sector and they invited some of us along to teach us about some of the things they have been working on. From visiting other countries and holding their own research, they have devised some new cuts of beef that aim to add millions to the value of the steak market. This is made possible through using seam butchery techniques.

We started with a presentation explaining their techniques and how they have been devised. This was then followed by a butchery demonstration and then the various cuts were cooked and we were able to taste them.

My favourite by far was the Picanha steak. This is a popular cut in South America and is full of flavour. This was closely followed by the Bistro steak and both of these cuts are taken from the rump.

  

We ended the afternoon by cooking up our favourite cut and eating them with a selection of salads. On leaving we were given some fantastic goody bags containing two packets of 'flat iron' steaks and lots of other ingredients to go with them. These have now provided two dinners for my husband and I. I must say that the flat iron steak is not a favourite of mine. Cooked plainly I find it had an irony flavour (much like onglet). However, when cooked in a sauce or marinade, it was lovely.

Butchers, supermarkets and restaurants providing meat adhering to the standards set by EBLEX are entitled to display the Quality Standard Beef mark. This guarantees the quality from source right through to supplier.

Having learnt everything, I would now actively seek out places that provide Quality Standard Beef. My one gripe is that I can't easily find out who does have the mark. I think EBLEX's website would benefit from having an up to date list of those currently providing Quality Standard Beef.

One other thing to note would be the fantastic venue. It was at L'Atelier de Chefs on Wigmore Street. I resisted the urge to browse through the fantastic cooking utensils they sell and I'm sure I'll be back soon for one of their classes.

Belgo: Getting Quizzy with Lobster

My wife is competitive. Very competitive.

So when she had a spare afternoon before accompanying me to a lobster quiz, she used it to swot up on lobster facts.

The result? We ran away with the quiz organised by Belgo* to celebrate their annual Lobsterfest, which is on throughout June.

While everyone else was enjoying the lobster dishes and Belgian beers, Grace was explaining to me what she had discovered during the day, such as a lobster's favourite sexual position and how long they live for!

It was worthwhile though, as we won a very generous prize of restaurant vouchers and a booth at Lucky Voice - another of Grace's favourite pastimes, so thanks Belgo Bill!

Anyway, on to the food...

We started with a satisfying rich, creamy, lobster bisque.

The surf and turf

On to the star of the show and the signature Maine Lobster with a five ounce ribeye steak.

I've always enjoyed the work involved in eating lobster (and crab) and using the precision instruments to pull, scrape and dig around for the tasty morsels of sweet meat.  There's something very satisfying about it and I got stuck into my lobster and had bits of shell flying about the table as I pulled out the meat.  Good stuff.

My favourite thing about Belgo is it's range of beers and I was delighted to have the chance to have a Delerium, which brought back happy (if somewhat hazy) memories of a boozy trip to Brussels.

Overall, a fab night and Grace has already got the karaoke planned!

Lobsterfest runs until the end of June and you can pick up (or even eat) a whole, grilled 1lb lobster with fries and salad for £24.95.  I was invited along as guest of Belgo to this bloggers event.

 

A cheesy night at GAIL's Artisan Bakery

Bread and cheese.  Two of my favourite food stuffs, with me being an unashamed food snob when it comes to decent bread.  In fact, I think you can often judge how good a restaurant is likely to be based on the quality of bread they serve.

So, when I got an invite to attend a tasting evening pairing different breads from GAIL's and cheeses from Paxton & Whitfield I jumped at the chance.

The selection of breads we were served.

The idea of the evening was simple, Emma from GAIL's and Rhuaridh from Paxton & Whitfield talked us through the various breads and cheeses they had picked for us and then we had to decide which combinations were our favourites.

A serious task and one I wanted to do a thorough job with, so (in the interests of research) I ate about a kilo of cheese and a couple of loafs!

 

 

 

 

The two cheese platters to choose from.

Most of the breads were varieties of sourdough and varied from a couple of simple types to ones with fruit/veg in.  Emma explained all the loaves are baked fresh everyday and are hand kneaded by their bakers.

The fruit breads at the top, cracker in the middle and sourdoughs at the bottom.

I thought the milder cheeses such as the delicious, creamy Cerney goats cheese and the St Felicien worked best on the plainer sourdough, while the more pungent cheeses such as the Gorgonzola Dulce and Highland Blue went well with the fruit bread such as the currant & cherry and apricot & hazlenut sourdoughs.

The thin, crunchy, seeded crackers provided a good alternative to the bread and went with most of the cheeses.

As usual, my favourite cheese was a Comte, though this was a bit younger (about 6 months old) and not as strongly flavoured as others I have had.

We were given a potato and rosemary loaf and an olive sourdough to take home and try and these were possibly my two favourite breads overall.

The potato and rosemary was excellent toasted with lashings of melted butter (I've had about five slices over the weekend!) and the olive sourdough was packed with big, juicy black and green olives that gave it bags of flavour.

The bread at GAIL's isn't cheap at £2.25-£2.99 per loaf, but the quality can't be faulted.  It would be ideal if you are looking to impress for a dinner party or just want to treat yourself to something a bit special and a class above most other breads.

Hawksmoor, Seven Dials: Stupendous steaks, champion chips & classy cocktails

Often when I have steak in a restaurant I end up disappointed as it turns up badly cooked or is a poor cut of meat.  I generally prefer to buy the best quality of steak I can and cook it at home in my trusty griddle pan.

My current butcher of choice of is the Ginger Pig and I've popped in a few times to their branch in Greensmiths on Lower Marsh near work to pick up a steak or two.  It isn't cheap (about £8-£12 per steak), but the quality of the meat makes it far better value than going to an average restaurant for one.

The only restaurants that serve a similar quality meat are generally out my price range and so I jumped at the chance to sample Hawksmoor, Seven Dials, not once, but twice, during their soft opening.

Based close to Covent Garden they've done a great job in converting a basement (apparently it used to be a brewery) into a dark, atmospheric dining space and bar.

They also use beef from the Ginger Pig and have a chalk board with the cuts of steak and sizes available listed, which is a nice touch.

My first visit was for the excellent Dine with Dos Hermanos event and we were lucky enough to sample a huge part of the menu.  I then returned on the Saturday for second helpings.

There is a wide selection of meaty and fishy starters and my favourites on two visits were the lamb chops and the corned beef.

The lamb chops & corned beef, pickles & mustard

However, it's the beef that's the star of the show and on both occassions we were served the different cuts of beef sliced in a large platter.

The star of the show & bone marow

All the larger steaks are served on the bone and have a perfect char and a juicy, bloody centre, which makes for a great steak.  My favourite cut on my two visits was the tenderloin part of the Porterhouse.  It just melted in the mouth and was packed full of flavour.

Another big plus for Hawksmoor is the quality of their sides. The bone marrow (pictured) was rich, unctious and delicious on the bread we were served. 

My favourite of the two types of chips were the beef dripping roast potatoes.  Incredibly crisp on the outside and super fluffy inside they are simply some of the best i've ever had and worth a visit for those alone.  The tokens bits of veg I consumed were also well cooked, though can easily be neglected in favour of the beef, chips and moreish bernaise sauce.

Seeing how much effort goes into the steak, then you might think that desserts would be a secondary consideration, but they were a pleasant surprise.

Lemon curd & shortbread and Chocolate pudding

I particularly enjoyed the lemon curd and short bread.  The zesty lemon and sugary shortbread were a perfect pallette cleanser after all the beef.

A rich chocolate pudding should have been too heavy a finish to the meal, but somehow I managed to shovel all the gooey chocolately goodness in!

With an impressive cocktail and drinks menu, Hawksmoor really has a lot going for it and it is definitely up there with Goodman as the best steak restaurant in London. 

I know a lot of people who name the Gaucho Grill as their favourite London steak place.  However, to me these two restaurants are a class above and now Hawksmoor has a more central branch, i'd urge you to give it a try and see the difference.  I'm confident you won't be disappointed... 

 

Waitrose Cooking School: Magnificent Macaroon Making

Given my lack of cooking ability and my uncanny knack to set the smoke alarm off every time I do toast, I like to grasp any chance to improve my (limited) skills.

That’s why I was delighted to be invited to a special event to celebrate the launch of the Waitrose Cookery School on Finchley Road.

The theme of the evening was macaroons and cocktails, which seemed to be a strange combination, but we soon found out that the chefs wanted to show off the kitchen and the bar and as we only had a couple of hours we couldn't make anything too complicated.

The school is very impressive. Clean and crisp decor, bookcases filled with every imaginable cooking book and a pristine kitchen fitted with top of the range gadgets and gizmo's.  If I was a serious cook then I think I would've been in kitchen heaven!

   
Three bookcases packed with every cookbook imaginable...

Gary from the Roast Potato blog got the short straw and was my cooking partner for the night.  We were given a demonstration of how to make the perfect macaroon by James, the Head Chef of Pastry and then it was over to us...

Head Chef Pastry, James, demonstrating how it should be done...

I let Gary take the lead with the egg cracking and mixing, whilst I expertly managed to bring the sugar and water up to the required 114.

Expert probing

Our mix didn't quite have the professional looking sheen (ours was a bit grainy) of some of the other bloggers, but it wasn't a bad effort.  It was then on to the fun bit of piping the macaroons on to the baking tray. 

A model of consistency...

My first few efforts seemed to resemble various models of dog defecation, but after a quick lesson from James and his team I managed to get the hang of it and produced some decent looking macaroons.

Making cocktails

Whilst the macaroons were in the oven we went over to the bar and were given a cocktail demo by, Wilson (one of the other chefs) and were offered some delicious egg nog macaroons that the team had made earlier.  We made a lovely, refreshing, bitter orange drink with Grand Marnier, orange juice and maple syrup.  Just the tonic after slogging over a hot stove in the kitchen!

 
Mulled Wine and Egg Nog macaroons

As we were limited for time the school had already prepared the fillings for us and so we were left to pipe the spiced mandarin into our creations and were also given the ingredients to construct a mulled wine macaroon, which was probably my favourite on the night.

The macaroons for home

Once the macaroons were made and we'd sampled a few over an espresso martini it was time to box them up and take them home.

Overall it was a really fun night and I was impressed not only with the Chef's knowledge and skills, but also their patience, warm welcome and friendly attitude.  We were made to feel really welcome and no question was too much trouble.  Best of all the washing up was done for us!

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The Waitrose Cookery School opens this week and offers 25 different food and drink courses.  There is something for everyone with classes ranging from 'Comfort Food' to 'The Art of Michelin Star.

The courses run Monday to Friday and are either half or full days.  The full day course is £175 including all ingredients, wine and equipment.  The half day course is £105 for the same.

If you're struggling for Christmas present ideas for a food-loving friend or partner then you could do a lot worse than one of these courses (hint, hint lovely friends and family reading....)

To find out call 020 7372 6108 or visit the website.

 

 

Camino, Canary Wharf: All aboard the sherry ferry!

To celebrate the opening of Camino, Canary Wharf I was one of a group of foodies to be invited to board a special 'sherry ferry' to take us from London Bridge to Canary Wharf.

Enjoying a glass of cava outside Canary Wharf

As we checked out the sights on the Thames Clipper, we were served sherry and cold cuts.  It was a great way to travel to a restaurant and we were greeted off the ferry with a glass of cava.  Not a bad way to start the evening!

Camino has a prime spot overlooking the river alongside a number of other restaurants (including a branch of Gaucho and Royal China) and I'm sure the aim is to entice the city boys down to spend the big bucks.

The restaurant is stylishly decorated with a large bar and open plan kitchen.  Unlike the King's Cross branch it is one large room, but like it's sister venue it has a good, lively vibe to it.

 

Some of the stylish features in the restaurant

If you're a fan of the food at Camino's King's Cross branch then you won't be disappointed as the menu is the same.

You can read my review of the full menu and, as last time, the figs, pork shoulder and baby squid were my favourites.

I got the chance to speak to Richard (the owner) and Ross (restaurant manager) during the evening and they are both passionate about providing welcoming service and good food at reasonable price and I think they've found a winning formula.

If you're in the area or fancy a bit of a sightseeing trip along the river, followed by a good meal, then Camino is just the ticket.

Camino: Eating the whole menu!

I recently visited Camino as a paying customer and had it in my list of reviews to do in the coming weeks. However, before getting chance to write it up I received an invite to attend their training session for the staff of their new branch opening in Westferry.

As I'd enjoyed my meal there a few weeks ago I jumped at the chance, even if it did mean taking a long lunch from work and having to work into the evening!

The tasting was hosted by Nacho, the Head Chef and he talked us through the menu, answering any questions that the five bloggers or new staff had.

Now, it would be a bit much to review every single dish on the menu, so instead I've picked out some highs and occasional lows from each section.

Meats & Cold Cuts

 First up was a fabulous selection of cold cuts and cheese. We received them on individual plates, but Nacho also brought out a board showing how they'd be presented in the restaurant.

A selection of cold cuts & cheese

Highs:

The Jamon Iberico, which had been cured for 36 months, was superb. It had an intense, heavy, nutty flavour (from the acorns that the pigs feast on) and wasn't too salty. The slithers of ham just melted in the mouth.

Lomo Iberico was was the fattiest of the salamis, but none the worse for it. The fat just dissolved in the mouth leaving little morsels of cured meat to enjoy.

Manchego cheese. I can sometime find manchego a bit bland, but this was a lot stronger than most I'd had. Matured for 8 months it had a nutty flavour to it that worked perfectly with the sweet quince.

Lows:

Compared to the other cheeses the Tetilla was a little bland and unmemorable.

Salads & Vegetables

Next up was a range of salads and vegetable accompaniments.

My two favourite salads: the artichoke on the left and the fab figs on the right

Highs:

Fig, Mahon cheese and ham salad was wonderful. The figs were wrapped in ham and contained a small cube of cheese. They had been grilled and the sweet figs, melted cheese and salty ham was a fantastic combination. It came served with some mixed leaves and a sherry vinegar dressing, but it's the figs that stick in the memory. Nacho explained that this dish is only on the menu for a short time as figs are only in season for a couple of months.

Grilled artichoke, red and yellow peppers, green beans and tomatoes on a bed of cracked wheat was an unusual combination that worked surprisingly well.

Sauteed piquillo peppers in white wine and garlic is a favourite of mine and this was a good version. The peppers were soft, sweet and delicious.

Smoked cod and orange and the pimientos
 

Lows:

For me, the orange overpowered the delicate smoked cod in a salad which also contained black olive, red onion and new potatoes.

Everyone else loved the pimientos de padron (little green peppers with sea salt), but I found them slightly bitter and too salty. They are a bit of an acquired taste and weren't for me.

Fish

A selection of seafood dishes

I'm not a massive fish lover, so I didn't over indulge on these courses (I was saving myself for the meat still to come) and my favourites were all the shellfish dishes.

The crisp fried baby squid had a light crunchy batter, was not at all chewy (which often happens), and came served with a light, creamy alioli.

King prawns were served cold in their shells and were some of the most succulent, sweet prawns I've had.

 
The spectacular looking octopus tentacle

 

I've never had octopus before and was pleasantly surprised by this dish. It was very meaty and tender - not at all rubbery as the appearance would make you think.

Meat

This was the course I was most looking forward to and on my first visit I'd been really impressed by the quality of the meat selection.  Nacho explained that Camino use a two tonne charcoal grill that they imported specially from Bilbao.

Highs:

Iberico black pig shoulder blade was served like steak and came medium rare, which is unusual for pork. It had a lovely char on it from the grill and was super succulent and was a real porky treat.

The rib-eye steak was equally good. It was served very simply with just a bit of olive oil and salt, which let the quality of the beef shine through.

On my first visit, I was also served some really good morcilla. It was served with apples and had a soft, crumbly texture and was some of the best I've had in the UK.

Lamb skewers, chicken skewers and lamb cutlets

Lows:

I like my lamb served rare, so I thought the lamb skewers were a little over-cooked, though the marinade of paprika, chilli, garlic and chilli did provide a good flavour.

Overall:

It was a real pleasure to spend the afternoon grazing through the Camino menu.  Nacho's passion for his food shone through and he answered all our questions enthusiastically and appeared to really value our feedback. I was impressed that he had such a commitment to training his staff, so they understood the food they would be serving.

Camino's food philosophy seems to be to find the best ingredients and serve them in simple, tasty ways and on the whole they do this very well. There aren't too many elaborate flavours or techniques, which allows them to get the food out of the kitchen quickly. It seems to be a winning formula, as when I went on a Thursday evening the place was packed and there was a 45 minute wait for the table.

Pizza Express Challenge: How hard can it be to make a pizza?!

Coming up with the perfect pizza topping surely couldn't be too difficult, could it? Simply bung a load of your favourite foods on the base and then stick it in the oven for 10 minutes and devour. Job done.

Well, that's what I thought before I went along to Pizza Express in London for the launch of their nationwide challenge to devise a new pizza for their menu.

When I received the invite I was offered the chance to choose any ingredients I wanted.  Now the temptation was to go for the weird and wonderful, but I contemplated long and hard on what to choose and wanted to go for a pizza that would have a bit of balance and not too much going on.

In the end I decided on a Spanish/Cypriot theme and requested chorizo, morcilla and halloumi cheese. My mate Adam also came with me and sent a list featuring chocolate, chillies, orange zest and a number of other weird things.  Surely he wasn't going to combine all of them was he? Time would tell.

The other bloggers present had also chosen various different ingredients and there was a huge table filled with all the requests. 

The table of ingredients - morcilla to the front right!

I spotted a number of interesting toppings: manchego and feta cheese, roasted pumpkin, avocado, boiled potatoes and courgettes just being a small number of the requests made.

However, before we could add our toppings we had to make our own pizzas.

 

Adam making his pizza base

Mark from Pizza Express took us novices through our paces and had us stretching, tossing and kneading the dough before he showed us how to add the sauce and spread it evenly across the base.

Once this was done it was time to add our toppings. Mark warned us not to add too many as it might make the pizza go soggy, but it looked like most of the people ignored this advice and piled on as much as they could!

Our masterpieces ready for the oven

In the end I tried not to over elaborate and went for chorizo, morcilla, red onion, and yellow peppers. On one half I put halloumi and on the other mozzarella.

Adam went a bit crazier and had a half and half concoction of chicken, chilli and chocolate on side and chorizo, red peppers, onion and basil on the other.

The final results - now on to the tasting...

Despite his protests to the contrary, Adam's chicken, chilli and chocolate monstrosity tasted as bad as it sounded.  Milk chocolate and chicken don't mix* - trust me, don't try this at home...

As for mine, well I was quietly pleased with it. The only thing that didn't work was the halloumi (you live and learn) but the rest worked well together and with a bit of tweaking who knows, you might see it on the Pizza Express menu in the future.

We got into a good chat with the girls opposite (hello Emma, Helen and Sarah!) and they all agreed that Adam's pizza didn't look the best, but as the drink flowed he was able to demonstrate some of his other talents.

As we discussed what we'd do if we did it again he suggested putting as many different types of meat on the pizza and calling it the 'Zoo' or to make the world's poshest pizza featuring foie gras, truffles and swan! Let's hope one day he gets to fulfill his dream.

The final part of the night was to fill in a postcard and enter our pizzas into the competition to win the £5,000 prize. Naming the pizzas was good fun. I went for a fairly dull Spanish Sensation, Adam's plumped for 'Decadent Extravaganza' and I won pun of the night for suggesting Em-azing for Emma's.

All in all, a really good, fun night and a big thanks must go to all the staff for making us so welcome and for looking after us splendidly.

* the obvious exception being a Mexican mole.

Tilda Stir Fry Rices: Rice & Easy Does It

I was invited along to a special bloggers event to launch Tilda's new range of stir fry rices.  These sort of events are always fun to go to and it's always lovely to meet other bloggers, try something new and give an honest opinion on the product.

It is fair to say the majority of the bloggers weren't likely to be Tilda's target audience, as people like Anne, Gary and Manuika (amongst others) are already accomplished cooks in their own right and probably don't need to take shortcuts in the kitchen.

However, I am an altogether different proposition and need all the help I can get!

The reason I like eating out so much is that my skills in the kitchen leave a lot to be desired and so I was interested to see how these new stir fry rices measured up.

 

We gathered in the kitchen of the beautiful Food at 52 and were treated to a demonstration by chef and author Jo Pratt.

Jo started the evening by making a spicy Thai Green Rice soup with prawns. This was delicious and so simple to make. The soup was full of flavour with the spices from the rice infusing with the chili and coriander to make a very tasty starter.

Undoubtedly my favourite dish of the evening and one I'll definitely be trying at home. 

After the deliciousness of the soup the lamb was a bit bland in comparison. 

The lamb itself was very good - tender and full of flavour. However, the Thai Red rice by itself wasn't enough and the lamb probably needed a bit of a marinade and some veg to jazz it up a bit. 

One blogger suggested a bit of lemon and lime would have gone well with it and I thought this was a great idea. Onwards and upwards though!

Next up were some good crispy duck pancakes.  The rice definitely added something extra and I enjoyed these a lot and did my best to grab a couple, as they were popular with everyone else.

After Jo had run us through dishes it was our turn and I teamed up with Cathy and Helly to whip up a storm.  We were treated to some top produce for ingredients and decided to use some of the jumbo prawns that were in the soup earlier.

We also grabbed various veg, some ginger, oyster and soy sauce and the Peking Rice and five minutes later this was the result:

A simple, tasty, healthy dish that anyone (even me) could cook.  I added a few chopped chillies and went out into the garden to enjoy our creation.

Overall I was impressed with the flavour of the rice. The range is a high quality convenience food and great to have in the cupboard when you've had a long day at work and want something quick and easy.

I've already thrown some veg, pork, soy sauce and ginger in a pan with the Peking rice and cooked up a perfectly good meal for two in about 10 minutes - well 20 when you add in how long it takes me to chop veg!  Certainly quicker, cheaper and healthier than popping to the takeaway...

Vive le Cheese at La Fromagerie

One of the great things about being a food blogger is you get invited to various events and I was delighted to go along to the launch of the ‘Vive le Cheese’ campaign last week.

It was hosted by the lovely Katrina Alloway and an enthusiastic bunch of food bloggers gathered at La Fromagerie in Marleybone to try various French cheeses.

  

Some of the La Fromagerie features: a fox & a crow fighting over a cheese block, some of the goods on display and a disco ball for when they play cheesy music?!

La Fromagerie is a beautiful shop. A real Aladdin’s cave of cheesy treasures and it is packed full of personality, warmth and charm that reflects well on Patricia, the owner who has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things cheese.

To begin with I felt a bit of a fraud as I was the only one who said they take chocolate over cheese if stranded on a desert island.  However, that’s more due to my chocolate obsession rather than any lack of love of cheese!

We were split into groups and I ended up in the smallest group (not a bad thing as it meant more cheese for us) with Kavey, Chris and Stephen.

We started off with a tour of French cow’s cheese by the friendly and knowledgeable Jean Baptiste.  We got to sample ten cheeses of various strengths, textures and flavours.

My favourite three were:

Comte D’Estive – this was amazing. I absolutely fell in love with this and had second, third and then fourth helpings of it!  It had a sweet, almost caramel taste to it and I bought a big chunk to take home with me.

Reblochon, Savoie – quite mild, but had a lovely smooth creamy texture. A great snacking cheese I thought.

Vache Porte D’Aspe Valley – A challenging cheese with a strong and distinct flavour. Kavey described it as giving an almost chilli like sensation in the mouth and I know what she meant.  It was very different and something that I would not normally try.

Cheese Map of France

It was then off to the café section of the shop where we were served with four dishes featuring cheese.  Unlike my other group members, I particularly enjoyed the roquefort soufflé. Light, not too strong and with a good contrasting crunch from the enclosed hazlenuts. It was accompanied with a lovely spiced pear chutney that provided a good fruity contrast to the blue cheese.

Roquefort and Walnut Souffle with spiced pear chutney

A spicy  butternut squash soup with reblochon fritters was also a big success. The soup started off with the creamy butternut squash flavour, you then got a taste of coriander before being left with the heat from the chili flakes.

In keeping with my sweet tooth, my favourite wine was the Sauternes-Barsac, which went well with the soufflé and the fig tarlet.

Finally it was off to the Affineur’s room and a lesson from JP.  For those that don’t know (and I didn’t until Wednesday) an affineur is basically a sommelier of cheese.  They prepare, manage and look after the cheese so it reaches the customer in perfect condition.

Inside the Affineur Room (part 1)

The Affineur’s room is a giant walk-in fridge packed full of cheese. Together with the maturing rooms that they have at La Fromagerie, it is used to age the cheese to perfection.

JP talked all about his job - how he ‘washes’ the cheese to give it extra flavour, keeps waste to a minimum and how he gives cheese recommendations to people wanting advice on experiencing new cheese.  

As well as being highly knowledgeable, he was friendly and had time for all our questions.  It was obvious that he loved cheese and he talked about it in the way most people would talk about their loved ones.

Inside the Affineur Room (part 2)

The night was drawing to a close and I stocked up on four of my favourite cheeses from the evening to take home to my parents for a tasting over Easter.

These went down well, although I bought a bit much and ended up taking them down the pub with my friends, which led to the slightly surreal moment of watching the David Haye fight whilst eating some fine French cheese!

Overall, it was delightful evening and I learnt a lot about cheese.  From the small producer in the Pyrenees producing 50 cheeses a week to the battles over PDO status with big producers about the names of some of the regional cheeses, it was an enlightening and enjoyable event.

You can find out more about the Vive le Cheese Campaign on Facebook, at the official blog or on Twitter.