Isabelle’s Cheese Dreams
While the Inuit may have dozens of words for types of snow, the French have many more for cheese.
Cheese comes to Fair Food’s French marketing manager, Isabelle Fouard, as naturally as an Eastern Curlew’s yearly migration from Siberia to Australia.
You could say, without exaggeration, that cheese is in Isabelle’s bones.
So much so that I was surprised it’s taken her so long to use her position to launch Fair Food’s new Cheesemaker of the Month.
Isabelle’s celebration of cheeses begins in fine style with the Milawa Cheese Company.
Founded like almost every great thing that’s ever been done, the company began after a series of evening kitchen table conversations between a couple of old friends.
Those late-night talks led to David & Anne Brown leaving their city jobs and buying an old butter factory in Milawa, North-Eastern Victoria.
Anne, David and their friend Richard recruited a band of helpers and locals, mainly from the local pub, to build their new facility.
They had limited machinery and had to cut curd, hoop, salt, brush, turn and wrap their cheeses by hand.
What was first necessity became the traditions and techniques still in use today.
The Brown’s, also out of necessity, lived close to their cheeses in a converted gumboot store – the hum of refrigeration units became a constant soundtrack in their lives.
That first Christmas Eve they opened a small shop out back of the factory and began to build what would become a community of fellow cheese lovers.
The first cheese the Brown’s wanted to make was a blue inspired by the Gorgonzola Dolcethe Brown’s had tried in Northern Italy.
It was the perfect cheese to initiate non-blue eaters and something no one in Australia was making at the time.
David and Annie’s attitude was if it could be made in Italy why not in Milawa?
The hypothesis was right, but the execution took years of perseverance before the Milawa Blue we know today came out of the old butter factory consistently.
When the Browns finally nailed it Milawa Blue became their signature cheese going on to win Gold and Silver Medals at the World Cheese Awards.
Next, even more challenging to Australian palates, was Miliwa’s washed rind cheese. The thing with the King River Gold with its soft interior, gritty rind and a rich smokey flavour was that it got stronger, runnier and smellier as it matured.
Like many delicacies King River Gold walked the fine line between delicious and decay – a line that would violently divide its eaters.
The Browns stuck to their guns and King River Gold built its own following and also won multiple medals at the World Cheese Awards.
In recent years as Milawa’s reigns were handed over to Ceridwen, David and Annie’s daughter, new cheesemakers have come bringing a whole new range of cheeses have been developed.
It’s rare to find a goat’s milk Camembert in Australia but once again Miliwa led the way. Their traditional Normandy style Goat Camembert begins fresh and firm breaking down to a gooey, salty interior as it matures.
Oh dear, I think I’m going to enjoy this series – you can find Isabelle’s Cheesemaker of the Month section here.
Have a great week
Chris
