Say Cheese to Love! Valentine's Day Survey Reveals British Devotion to European Dairy Delights

A recent Valentine's survey commissioned by our friends at the CNIEL and conducted on their behalf by Opinium, reveals some interesting facts, not least about our love for cheese.

According to the survey, chocolate remains the preferred Valentine's gift for 20% of those who celebrate Valentine's Day, compared to 14% who prefer flowers. 

The adage, 'Food is the way to the heart,' rings especially true for men, with nearly half (47%) desiring a gift of food or wine for Valentine's Day, compared to 28% of women.

When it comes to the perfect Valentine's date, 56% of those who celebrate would choose a meal in a good restaurant. Watching a film with a box of chocolates or taking a picturesque walk are joint second choices, each appealing to 35% of respondents. Meanwhile, 20% of Valentine's Day fans would enjoy going to a show or comedy.

The survey also revealed that over a third of the UK population shares a passion for cheese. It certainly has a place in our hearts and fridges: more than three-quarters (78%) of respondents stated they have at least one cheese in the fridge, with 59% enjoying a wide variety of cheeses - such as Brie, Camembert and Morbier.

Passion for cheese is particularly strong among younger people, with 44% of those aged 18-34 expressingtheir love for it, compared to 30% of those aged 55 and over. Regional differences also emerge, with 48% of Londoners and 44% of respondents in Yorkshire and Humberside passionate about cheese, compared to just 22% in Southampton. 

Beyond Valentine's Day, in excess of half (52%) of respondents agree that sharing a cheeseboard with loved ones is a fantastic way to enjoy an evening.

This Valentine's Day, let cheese be the way to your loved one's heart! A wide variety of European cheeses will seduce even the most delicate palates and allow you to innovate and surprise. If you are planning to share a cheeseboard for Valentine's Day or for date nights throughout the year, here are some top tips.

1/ Before serving the cheeses, let them stand for at least an hour and a half at room temperature so that they develop their full aromas fully.

2/ Offer a diverse choice of cheeses that complement each other in terms of taste and texture. At a minimum, make sure you have at least one soft, hard and blue cheese but to really impress five is the magic number.

3/ Provide a knife for each cheese to avoid cross contamination of flavours and leave enough space between the cheeses to allow for guests to cut and remove their cheese easily.

4/ Place the cheeses from the mildest to the strongest in a clockwise direction; this helps people to taste in the best sensory order.

5/ Dried fruit, fresh fruit, fruit jellies, seeds, aromatic herbs and edible flowers all add interesting colour, flavours and textures to your cheeseboard - let your creativity flow.

For a mild cheese that brings something decadent to the board, try a Brillat-Savarin, a triple cream cheese that melts in the mouth and leaves a rich buttery and sweet flavour. Another delicious mild cheese that you can find in a wide variety of shops is Doux de Montagne - a light, cheese dotted with small holes with mild, fruity, buttery and herbal flavours. Both cheeses pair well with a glass of Champagne.

If you are more traditional, why not go for Neufchâtel, a pretty heart-shaped cheese is a perfect option. Its white, slightly fluffy rind and lightly salted, creamy pastry with a milky taste will melt your partner's heart.

Whilst cheddar remains the UK's favourite cheese, Comté PDO is France's most popular hard cheese. It is sweet, slightly nutty and becomes harder with deeper flavours as it matures.

With their blue green mould and strong, salty flavours, even some cheese lovers can be hesitant when it comes to blue cheeses. For a gentler introduction, Fourme d'Ambert is mild with a velvety texture and subtle flavours. Food really is the way to anyone's heart.

For more information, visit: www.dairy-products-from-france.com/cheese

That's Food and Drink would like to thank ther CNIEL, (Centre National Interprofessionnel de l'Economie Laitière) for their help in preparing this blogpost. 

Will my wife and I be sharing sharing a Valentine's Day cheeseboard? Bien sûr!

Recipes to Add a Touch of Flair to Your Easter Celebrations

After weeks of keeping, or trying to keep Lenten promises, many of us will be ready for a delicious feast on Easter Sunday. 

Throughout Europe, as well as enjoying plenty of chocolate eggs, Easter is a time to enjoy a special meal with friends and family, giving everyone the chance to discover and enjoy the versatility of French cheeses.

Planning an Easter celebration? Why not impress guests with some delicious Morbier arancini? It's a semi soft cheese with a distinctive line of ash pressed into its heart, Morbier has a persistent aroma and a light creamy, almost fruity flavour. Its soft, yielding texture melts very well which gives the arancini a gooey goodness. It's also a great cheese for pizzas, pies and for raclette.

For a lighter aperitif use fromage frais to create stuffed cherry tomatoes by mixing with spices, aromatic herbs, garlic or onion for a delicious dip or spread. 

These little bites will be fresh, tasty and a great menu item for those wanting to leave plenty of room for the main course. Place any leftover filling into a bowl to spread onto freshly baked bread, later. Delicious!

Tradition has long been to eat lamb at Easter, the meat is beautiful at this time of year and is realty appreciated by those who celebrate throughout Europe. 

For an extra special side dish or a vegetarian main, Carrot Gnocchi with Saint-Félicien is a bright and indulgent side dish and a great way to sneak some vegetables onto the children's plates too.

If you have a little more time on the day try a Carrot, Cumin and Cantal Soufflé that is sure to impress your guests. Cantal is a sweet nutty cheese made in the centre of France and is great to cook with.

For a sweet and savoury end to the meal, opt for a cheese course served with fresh apples, grapes and figs plus dried apricots, cranberries, dates and nuts. 

We recommend you start with a soft cheese such as Brillat-Savarin or Camembert, then an uncooked pressed cheese like a Tomme de Savoie, a cooked pressed cheese such as Beaufort and a blue such as Bleu d'Auvergne or Bleu de Gex.

We hope that you have a joyful Easter. With such a vast and versatile variety of European cheeses at your disposal it is sure to be delicious one.

https://www.filiere-laitiere.fr/fr/les-organisations/cniel

Female Trailblazers of the Cheese World Share Wise Words for International Women's Day

French women have long been trailblazers in the art of gastronomy and today is no different with some fantastic female talent working in the world of French cheese, undoubtedly one of Europe's most admired culinary crafts. 

Here are four women who deserve to be celebrated this International Women's Day. In France, a dedication to perfecting skills is celebrated with “Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France”, a competition founded 100 years ago in 1924. It is staged every four years with regular updates to make sure modern day trades and fields are included.

Those wishing to achieve the accolade must spend several years training in order for them to create a masterpiece from the materials given to them on the day of the competition. 

From the outset, the exam has been a validation of the mastery of know-how in a professional situation. In 2007, Laëtitia Gaborit was named one of the best cheesemongers aged just 28 with her innovative and impressive cheese display.

Laëtitia began a career in cheese with a passion inspired by her father, a cheese dairy worker, who would take her to visit producers during her school holidays. 

She took on the challenge of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France in her twenties to discover where she stood professionally. Laëtitia recalls her planning: “I prepared for the competition with a lot of tenacity, desire and, above all, passion. It wasn't easy, I had moments of self-doubt and financially it was quite challenging, but you always have to keep on moving forward.”

Now a cheese trainer, Laëtitia also has her own range of dairy products and cheeses.

Charlène Bouy, founder of Fromagerie Charlicot left a successful career in Mergers and Acquisitions in Paris before retraining to become a cheesemonger. Having left the company her friends encouraged her to pursue her passion in cheese and she's never looked back, citing her former colleagues and the salary as the only elements of the finance job she misses. 

When it comes to the qualities that women bring to the industry, Charlène, whose beautiful platters you can see on her Instagram Fromagerie Charlicot, suggests, “Women bring a more marked sensitivity to aesthetics, particularly with cheese platters - the famous “touche féminine”. However, within the industry, I find the women and men who love the profession all share the values of passion, commitment and beautiful presentation.”

At just 23 years old, Pauline Guillot is currently in the process of launching a dairy on the family farm. There she produces AOP Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage from a herd of 35 dairy cows. Having worked on the farm from an early age, Pauline wanted to manage the process from farm to fork. She says being able to transform the milk to a cheese that sets in five hours is nothing less than magical. 

Her day begins at 5.30am when the cold milk arrives from the previous day. The process of adding the ferments and rennet, placing the curd in the molds and flipping the curds takes them up to lunchtime. After a well earned break, the team returns in the early afternoon to flip the molds again and at 5pm the cheeses are salted and finished before the 21 day maturation process can start.

Pauline says being a woman in the industry means there's extra pressure to produce high quality products and there's an additional need for women to prove they can handle the physical demands of all stages of the production. She believes that women bring rigour and organisation to the production process as well as a different perspective to the male dominated traditions. Her advice for future female producers, “Be passionate about what you do, don't listen to criticism and trust yourself. Remember, we are just as capable as men we just need different approaches.”

The world of cheese is not just about producers and cheesemongers, CNIEL's director of international communications Marie-Laure Martin's followed her passion for working in agricultural products by studying food sociology. She worked briefly in the meat sector and then in fruit and vegetables before joining CNIEL to develop the international promotion of French dairy products.

For Marie-Laure, it's the human dimension of her job that appeals the most, and she is proud to represent the men and women dedicated to producing quality food. There is no such thing as a typical day as her time is divided between internal meetings, meetings with agencies around the world, creative brainstorming, administrative and reporting tasks and travelling to different territories. Her advice to anyone considering a job in the dairy industry is to “do something that you care about.”

The world of cheese is constantly developing and Laëtitia, Charlène, Pauline and Marie-Laure all share a commitment to sharing its qualities, traditions and craft to ensure its legacy for generations to come. It is wonderful to celebrate them this International Women's Day.

European Cheeses That Make Perfect Winter Warming Treats

Winter is the perfect time to cook with cheese and European cheeses are essential ingredients in the kitchen due to their diversity of texture and flavour. 

Such cheeses are featured in many traditional family favourites such as gratins, tarts, pizzas, fondues, sauces but they also inspire gourmet and challenging recipes. 

Here we share details of cheeses that will bring a sense of Alpine celebration or warming comfort to your winter dining experiences.

If you're looking for the perfect meal to share with friends “raclette” is for you! Whilst the Raclette cheese is perfectly good to eat cold, it truly reveals itself when it is melted. 

Raclette is created by heating the cheese either in front of a fire or using a specially created machine. As the top layer melts it is scraped onto potatoes, gherkins and cured meats.  Matured for at least two months, most Raclette cheese is made in the Alps and Franche-Comté. The paste varies from white to light yellow, while the rind is a uniform golden yellow. 

Savoyard fondue is also a perfect cold-weather dish. It is a popular and regional dish made from a range of cheeses such as Emmental, Comté PDO, Beaufort PDO or Abondance PDO, garlic and Savoy white wine. It is usually eaten with small pieces of stale bread. Using a fondue fork you dip the bread into the melted cheese to taste it, taking care not to drop the bread! 

Mont d'Or, also called Vacherin du Haut-Doubs PDO, is one of the few cheeses that you can eat with a spoon due to its very creamy texture. Production is limited from mid-summer until early spring due to the Montbéliarde and Simmental cattle only producing enough milk during the warmer months.

 Presented in its spruce box, its rind is wrinkled like the mountains where it was produced. It has a marked woody aroma but whilst its smell is intense, it has a delicate flavour with fresh, creamy notes and a pleasant smoothness. Its creamy, melt-in-the-mouth paste can be enjoyed at room temperature on bread or as a hot dish in the oven. Literally translated as golden mountain, this cheese is held in high esteem. 

Reblochon PDO, is produced in a region that covers a large part of Haute Savoie and the Val d'Arly in Savoie. This well-rounded creamy cheese is exclusively made with locally-produced whole raw cow's milk. 

The history of Reblochon began more than five centuries ago when the farmers of the Aravis mountains were subject to a milk tax to be paid to the local lords. The farmers would wait until the tax collectors left before milking their cows a second time, as the second milking is always creamier. Thus Reblochon was created, the term being derived from the word  “reblocher” which means “to milk again” in Savoie dialect.

Along with Mont d'Or, Reblochon is also commonly used in a Tartiflette - a comforting, creamy and warming dish of potatoes, cream, cheese, bacon and onions. When made with the latter cheese, the dish is also known as “Reblochonade”. Reblochon has a creamy texture and a mild, fragrant taste that you can easily combine with fruit, vegetables and spices as a starter or main course. It can also be enjoyed on its own, simply with a slice of bread!

Highly prized for its distinctive fruity taste and creaminess, Beaufort PDO is a great cheese to use in cooking as it melts beautifully. This famous pressed cooked cheese from Savoy is easily recognised by its concave heel. Highly appreciated for its fruity aroma and creamy texture, Beaufort is a cheese with a distinctive taste, without being strong. 

For a delicious meal that will impress your guests (and use up those Halloween pumpkins) try this Squash stuffed with creamy squid ink risotto with Beaufort and hazelnuts.

That's Food and Drink would like to thank CNIEL, (Centre National Interprofessionnel de l'Economie Laitière) the French Dairy Interbranch Organization) for their invaluable assistance in preparing this blogpost.

Incidentally, we feel the above cheesy treats will make perfect Christmas time dining experiences!

https://dairy-products-from-france.com