14-07-2025
Four things the French can learn from the British about making cheese
No country is more closely associated with cheese than France.
The average French citizen consumes 27 kilos of the stuff per year, more than double their British counterpart, while the country exports over £3 billion of cheese annually. To put things in perspective, Britain exports under £1 billion.
Yet despite its dizzying array of producers (an estimated 22,000), who create more varieties of fromage than even Charles de Gaulle could imagine, there is plenty the French can learn from this country – as a delegation of 14 French cheesemongers discovered when they visited the UK on an educational tour in June.
The party toured farms – including Somerset cheddar-makers Westcombe Dairy and White Lake, which produces top goat's cheeses in the same county – as well as cheese shops in London.
Among its number were David Bazergue, director of the Fédération des Fromagers de France (FFF), who tells me he is impressed by how entrepreneurial Britain's cheese industry is, and Virginie Boularouah, a Parisian cheesemonger.
A lover of British cheese (which is in high demand in the French capital), Boularouah admits that she has had to stop selling it at her shop since Brexit, because the bureaucracy makes it 'too expensive'.
I joined the delegation at an innovative competition run by the Academy of Cheese, hosted in London. Now in its fourth year, Affineur of the Year showcases the role of the affineur (for which there is no direct English translation) – someone who ripens and ages cheese. In France, affinage often occurs away from the farm, whereas British cheesemakers traditionally age their produce themselves.
Surrounded by cheddars, British brie, caerphilly and more, Team France talked traditions, techniques and changing tastes with their British counterparts. Here's what they learned.
The British are better at experimenting
French cheese makers, admits Boularouah (one of the most renowned affineurs in France), are hampered by 'the weight of tradition. Everything is a headache, we do not dare to do things.' By contrast Britain, which lost much of its cheesemaking culture in the 20th century, is more open to experimentation, she argues.
'In France we are afraid, you're not afraid' – hence examples at the Affineur of the Year competition of caerphilly washed in a leek brine (perhaps to emphasise its Welshness), and a cheddar that, thanks to its ageing process, was miraculously transformed into an Alpine-style cheese.
The French can follow in our footsteps to create brand new cheeses
Affineurs were given up to five cheeses (Quicke's cheddar, Baron Bigod brie, Gorwydd caerphilly, White Lake solstice and Cropwell Bishop blue Shropshire) and tasked with maturing them however they liked, tweaking how the cheese was washed, the temperature and humidity of the ageing rooms, adding rubs, flavourings or coatings.
It yielded versions coated with rose petals, dried herbs and fruit, others soaked in beer – and a winning cheddar by Perry Wakeman of Rennet & Rind in Cambridge that had dropped its traditional tang and was instead a brothy, savoury, umami-rich marvel.
Boularouah hopes to introduce an affinage competition to France, where there isn't an equivalent. 'They've got lots of cheese competitions in France, so it's amazing they like this and want to see it [there],' says Tracey Colley, founding director of the Academy of Cheese.
Our love of cooking with cheese might save France's smelly fromages
A recent study suggested France's youngsters are turning their noses up at pungent cheeses such as Époisses, preferring the sweeter flavours of Comté. Boularouah acknowledges the shifting palate: people now like 'sweet, sweet, sweet,' she says.
When she serves cheese buffets, most guests avoid smellier numbers: 'We are going to lose them,' Boularouah warns. But Bazergue believes the French could learn a lot from Britons' love of cooking cheese (where honky fromage can hold its own), as one way to help 'keep the tradition' of cheesemaking alive.
British cheesemongers do more than just flog fromage
A good purveyor of cheese not only supports a farmer by purchasing, but often enhances their product, putting their own stamp on it. Affinage can boost a cheesemonger's profile: 'when there's so much competition out there it gives cheesemongers a unique selling point,' says Colley. In recent years, producers such as London's Neal's Yard Dairy and North Yorkshire's Courtyard Dairy have led Britain's off-farm affinage movement, turning out the likes of 24-month aged Montgomery cheddar and extra-aged Old Winchester.
