“Round the block”

Cheese Talk with

Tim Rowcliffe of Rowcliffe & Son

• How one cheese shop supported locals in lockdown
• Rory Mellis, IJ Mellis: “Local businesses have a chance to flourish”
• Why we should be proud of the cheese industry’s response to Covid
• The joy of cheese grading
• “Keeping the faith”

Next year we celebrate our fiftieth birthday. And while we are all that much older, it's interesting to reflect on how little the world of cheese has changed over the years.

Sure there a thousand new cheeses about, a lot of them merely a variation on a theme, but one thing remains a constant thorn in the side of anyone who truly cares about really, really, really good cheese. Price.

With discounters working off minimal margins, the high street retailer is ever chasing those deals that make them look cheap. Although that’s not the word they would use.

When I first joined my father in business, it was common knowledge that British farm-made territorial cheese was a forgotten gem lost to the mass-produced slabs of paste masquerading behind a fancy label which probably cost more than the product to produce.

The few proper farmhouse makers were all but gone or on the brink of quitting. You all know what’s coming.

With the formation of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association and a band of insanely passionate farmers, the backlash began. Now there are more than 400 small artisan cheese producers in the UK making stunning versions of pre-war territorials and a myriad of other delights. It’s hard to think of a single Continental cheese which does not have its equal – and in many cases superior – equivalent.

And what’s happened to price? In short, the simple laws of economics will tell you that in any market every product deserves its price. A buyer wants to pay less for his two million tins of baked beans so the maker
puts less beans in every tin. Simple.

So when the ultimate buyer does his or her weekly shop, there is only so long some of them will put up with inferior lookalikes.

In turn they reject and seek out the real thing. And there’s plenty out there to choose from.

It’s the same with beers, chocolates , olive oils, biscuits and even breakfast cereals. Not to mention mobile phones. I miss my old Nokia.

The British public are becoming incredibly discerning and as such your cheap jack mass produced cheese becomes the victim of the calculator buyer. It’s a market not dissimilar to Arthur Daley’s car lot… portacabin optional . But the result is the same; a great Ford Focus at an unbelievable price. Pay your cash, get someone to jump start the flat battery and drive away. Watch the rear offside wheel overtake your car on the first roundabout and wish you’d taken a taxi ! Buy a piece of sublime Brie de Meaux or maybe a delicious slice of Westcombe Cheddar and you are home and dry. Have I skipped too far in the rant of a man demented with frustration with the deadly price word ?

Let me bring it all to a close then. Pay the proper price for the proper article and as retailers who have the enormous privilege ... I mean privilege ... of buying one of the finest products created please please please don’t try to drive this magical and seductive product into the nightmare world of commodity. It deserves respect, love and decency. Get rid of your calculator and taste the cheese!

If ever I get down, which is rare, I take an iron into the store and try some Kirkhams , Sparkenhoe, Keens , Monty and Appleby. Then I have a go off the Le Cret gruyere and Westcombe. Then I nick some meaux from our packing room and probably some more Le Cret to take home. Then I put a staff purchase order into the warehouse for a whole Manchego for the weekend!

The food of heaven and you can’t put a price on it.