“COW was created to celebrate the world’s cheeses”

11 March 2020, 14:11 PM
  • We speak to Antoine Farge and Alexandre Renault from COW in Paris on selling cheeses from around the world in the "country of cheese"
“COW was created to celebrate the world’s cheeses”

Antoine Farge says:
“France has over 1,000 different types of cheeses, but around the world there are many cheeses too, and every time we travel we discover new products. COW was created to celebrate the world’s cheeses, all in one place. It’s not easy to run a cheese shop with that philosophy in France, because we consider ourselves the country of cheese. People within the industry dismissed the idea, saying that within three months it would close because it wouldn’t work. Conversely, consumers have been
open-minded and want to experience new cheeses. For us, the consumer is most important.

At the start, we searched for great cheeses country by country, producer by producer, cheesemonger by cheesemonger, looking into how we could sell them in Paris. We collected a small range of cheeses and now have around 50-60 different ones from 15 countries. Most of them are European and British, and some are coming from America and Japan. The idea is to work only directly with producers, with nobody in between, and it can be easier to work with people outside of France than
those within it. When we presented the idea to Neal’s Yard, for example, they said that it would be a big challenge but they wanted to be part of the story because it sounded interesting.

For foreign cheesemakers, being sold in a cheese shop in Paris is very exciting. For example, we have a small producer from Norway who is so happy to be in Paris; in the first month he came regularly, and now comes every month with his own cheese because he wants to travel with it and take pictures of it in the shop. It’s an honour for international cheesemakers to be showcased in the country of cheese.”


Alexandre Renault says:
“The big problem with sourcing from abroad is the logistics. In Paris there’s a big platform where you can connect with the cheese industry in big volumes; our method is different. Because we order direct from overseas producers, I order once a month and mature large amounts of cheese in a space underneath the shop. The approaches are very different. At the beginning the process was new to me, but because the shop is bigger than others I’m able to work to this system relatively easily. I sometimes buy cheeses younger than other retailers so I can age them in our cellars perfectly. Another challenge we sometimes face with sourcing from abroad is that the producers don’t always speak or write English, but I think that if Brexit changes the way we work together we will be able to adapt.”


Image: Patrice Lariven

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