Advertisement

London in meltdown: why the capital is a fromage fantasy for cheese lovers

Gorge yourself: the capital’s cheeseboard is an obsession
Gorge yourself: the capital’s cheeseboard is an obsession

If sweet dreams are made of cheese, London is a fromage fantasy. The capital’s cheeseboard is an obsession: toastie bars are now popular City lunch spots, independent cheese makers are serving brie-liant innovations and Camden even has a restaurant dedicated purely to cheese-lovers. And this weekend the city is celebrating its love affair with a cheese festival in Islington, promising five-minute fondues, mac and cheese stands and dairy-inspired cocktails. What could be feta?

“It’s a celebration,” says Cheryl Cohen, who works at the festival’s organiser, London Farmers Markets (LFM). “We have some incredible cheese-makers at our markets, so we wanted to put the invitation out to others up and down the country who wouldn’t usually get the chance to sell with us.” Many of the industry’s big cheeses will be there, from Bath Soft Cheese, whose Bath Blue won a World Cheese Award last year, to Highbury’s favourite shop and café, La Fromagerie.

If you want confirmation of the appeal, watch the latest episode of David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s new show, Back. Webb’s obsequious character wins over everyone with a cheese toastie that even Mitchell’s naysayer character has to admit is “quite good”.

Back to real life: for two consecutive Sundays, September 24 and October 1, Chapel Market will be transformed into a fromage fanatic’s paradise, with tastings, pairings, masterclasses and talks. “Cheese angels” will treat visitors to endless samples and buskers will provide a little R ’n’ Brie. For the more dairy-ing, there’ll even be cheese rolling.

It’s a return to Islington’s roots, explains Cohen. The area was the “dairy capital of London” in the 19th-century, with about 170 suppliers. Most Londoners bought their milk from Laycocks, N1’s largest farm. Today, Chapel Market hosts a weekly farmers’ market, featuring a number of cheese-makers including Lincolnshire Poachers and Nut Knowle Farm from East Sussex. Both will have stalls at this weekend’s festival, alongside Windrush Valley Goat Dairy from Oxfordshire, famous for its baked cheesecake.

It’s the first year LFM has run a festival dedicated purely to cheese, Cohen explains. Indeed, many of the city’s makers and mongers are setting the agenda for cheese innovations elsewhere. “We’ve had cheese curds on the menu for years and all of a sudden chefs are picking up on them.”

As is now par for the course, craft beer has also made its way on to the menu. Tottenham-based cheese-maker Philip Wilton, founder of Wildes Cheese, will be serving one of his most popular varieties, made with curd soaked in beer. Wilton says it was an obvious combination, describing its taste as “a balanced collaboration between darker, chocolatey notes and lighter notes of cheese. If you’re a beer person and like cheese, it’s a match made in heaven.”

Londoners are getting more adventurous, with an increasing appetite for stronger cheese, Cohen explains. Tim Jones, co-founder of Lincolnshire Poachers, says he sells much older cheese in the capital than he does elsewhere. “We’ve noticed a trend towards bigger, heavier cheeses. People want rich flavours.” Travel is one reason, he notes: Londoners tend to be more connected, wanting to hear about the farming practices behind their food. “People in London are always interested in where something is from.”

And this weekend’s fromage fest is a national effort. Award-winning London cheese-maker Kupros Dairy and Blackwoods Cheese will exhibit alongside a Caerphilly selected range of top makers and mongers from around the country. Cheese will come in many forms, on pizza by Good Slice to courtesy of Raclette Brothers, who’ll drizzle it over burgers and garlic fried potatoes. Mac To The Future will serve mac ’n’ cheese, while The Poutinerie will be doing the Canadian take on chips, cheese and gravy.

Board games: how do you eat your cheese?

Susannah Butter

The big cheese

You order a whole cheeseboard to yourself and do not offer to share. This is a bold power move. Good luck to you if you can pull it off without losing friends or getting uncomfortably full.

The side hustler

You pick at the grapes and celery but appear uninterested in the main event. What’s wrong with you? On the plus side, these people are the best sharing partners.

The Italian job

You prefer a burrata. How European of you. You’d better load up now before Brexit inflates the prices of this amaze ball of mozzarella.

The know it all

You once had a posh cheese on holiday and boy, do you want everyone to know. Pipe down about the rare ass-milk ricotta with paired wine and spelt crackers (donkey cheese is the most expensive in the world) and let us enjoy our cheddar.

The fruity number

You must be Northern. People from above the Watford Gap say that apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze. Some even eat cheddar with lashings of jam. It’s an acquired taste.

It’s an exhibition of the city’s fromage fixation. Toasties are a hot favourite: look out for the stalls manned by Grill My Cheese, which made the famous rainbow cheese toastie, and The Cheese Truck, whose grilled sandwiches are popular at its usual spot in Maltby Street Market.

Once the festival is over there’s still plenty of cheese to stretch the most ardent fans. Camden has The Cheese Bar, opened in March by The Cheese Truck’s founder, Matthew Carver. The menu includes speciality toasties as well as fondue, poutine and 30 of Carver’s favourite cheeses. Other dairy-based empires are expanding too. Highbury’s La Fromagerie has just opened a new branch on Bloomsbury’s Lamb’s Conduit Street. In November, Hoxton will host new-wave cheese festival the London Cheese Project after a successful debut at Camden Market in May.

Many small plates now centre on cheese: The Laughing Heart on Hackney Road serves datterini tomatoes with goat’s curd and sea lettuce. New Yorkers have fallen for a cheese tea that’s destined to arrive on our shores before long. Sounds too gouda to be true.

Sep 24 and Oct 1, 10am-3pm, Chapel Market, N1, facebook.com, lfm.org.uk