Slow Food celebrates innovative, heritage cheeses

When an artisan cheese shop opened up at the end of my street in the middle of the global Covid-19 pandemic and in a town that can be described as middle England, the local grapevine was buzzing. It seems that there is an appetite for good cheese.

Tapping into the renewed interest in cheese, Slow Food UK is hosting a day of online talks and tastings on 10th December to share knowledge and inspiration from some of the UK’s most exciting cheesemakers.

Slow Food UK aims to inspire the wider cheese sector to connect - from small artisan producers to mongers and deli owners and ultimately consumers all seeking interesting, delicious cheeses. All talks and films are free to watch and are supported by Slow Food International, the global food advocacy organisation.

Shane Holland, chairman of Slow Food UK, says, “This day of cheese seeks to celebrate the artisan, and all that is special in cheese, particularly at this time when so many small cheese makers are struggling with restaurants closed.

“Each year Terra Madre Day is an opportunity for consumers and producers to come together, and to celebrate everything good, clean and fair in food”.

Slow Food is a global organisation working with small-scale farmers and producers to produce ‘good, clean and fair’ food. It was founded 30 years ago to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, and to counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat.

Covid-19 and the renewed interest in cheese
Fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic included a very successful campaign led by food writers Jenny Linford and Patrick McGuigan who, through a high-profile strategic social media campaign, put cheese back on the plates of consumers intrigued by new tastes and stories behind such cheese makers as Fen Farm Dairy’s Baron Bigod raw milk cow cheese and Ellie’s Dairy small batch goat’s cheese created on Kent’s North Downs.

Slow Food’s Cheese Day forms part of Slow Food’s biennial Terra Madre Salon del Gusto event. Held over five days in Turin, northern Italy, the huge market and conference hosts hundreds of artisan and small-scale producers from around the world including the UK and Eire. This year the event has moved online and will run until April 2021.

Also, in every alternate year, a long weekend in Bra, northern Italy sees raw milk cheese makers from the UK, Europe and around the world gather in a giant farmers market that spreads throughout the town. Many UK-based buyers visit to understand new trends, technical developments and what cheeses are selling where.

Promoting raw milk cheese
One of Slow Food’s interests in cheese is to promote raw, unpasteurised varieties, believing it is a complete food that has not undergone any treatment like skimming, homogenisation, pasteurisation or ultra-filtration. It is a live food, and if stored properly and consumed within two to three days, it maintains all of its original nutritional properties: nutrients, vitamins, pro-vitamins, enzymes and probiotic bacteria.

As a spokesperson for Heritage Cheese, based in south London’s Borough Market, says: “If you come to us, you come to buy Quickes Cheddar, not just Cheddar. You don’t buy ‘a’ goats cheese, you buy a Corleggy cheese”. She says Heritage Cheese works directly with the producers to get their story out.

Producers keep traditional methods of cheese and dairy production alive, such as Quicke’s whey butter, but also innovate new techniques but without losing traditional cheesemaking skills.

This is important for Slow Food whose work promotes foods, ingredients and production processes that are in danger of getting lost to history from commercial pressures.

A team from Spanish speciality food experts Brindisa, in conversation with Dario Lladó of Queseria 1605, will discuss what makes a truly artisan Manchego, while tasting five and 11 month old cheeses. These incredible cheeses soak up six litres of milk to make just one kilo of cheese and are made in central Spain.

Storytelling to sell cheese
A good back story to a food or ingredient generates interest in a product and attracts potential buyers eager to learn more and sharing that knowledge later with friends, family and dining companions. 

Phil Crouch, owner of Borough Market’s ‘Parma Ham and Mozzarella’ will talk about products he sources from Querceta, an organic farm in Puglia, southern Italy and pre- and hopefully, post-Covid an increasingly popular destination for British holidaymakers and food tourists.

Its cheeses, meats and olive oil are produced to organic and Slow Food standards. The farm is growing a herd of rare-breed Podolico cattle, and is supported by Slow Food through its Presidia network of experts. Farming in this way has its issues though – the farm has a problem with wolves hunting its outdoor reared pigs!

Slow Food UK Cheese Day events will be held Thursday 10th December 2020 from 1 pm.

All events are free to attend online and include contributions from Brindisa and Heritage Cheese. Log on from 1 pm for five one-hour episodes and a finale talk with Dr Sally Bell about ‘Food & Immunity’ plus a prize giving ceremony for the Slow Food Awards, honouring group members’ choice of best producers, retailers and unsung Slow Food UK heroes.

Image: Rebecca Orlov