Paul Heasman: ‘I couldn’t love what I do more’

We should probably rename Paul Heasman, purchasing manager at Rowcliffe, The Big Cheese. Over several decades Paul has built up a trusted reputation in the industry, beginning his career in the technical food sector, before landing in the glorious world of cheese, where his retail and market knowledge (as well has his palate) is highly respected.

Here we learn more about how Paul built an enviable career, his thoughts on the cheese sector…and what his desert island cheeses would be.

Have you always been a foodie?

I grew up in Orpington in Kent, and we were very much the kind of family that would sit and eat together.  I’d get sent off on a Saturday to go down to the butcher and the greengrocer, getting loose potatoes and pouring them into a bag. It was quite ‘old school’. I’d say as a family we probably wouldn’t, by today’s terms, have been called foodies, but we always had fresh vegetables and bought meat from the butcher’s van or the fishmonger’s van that would come down our street. It was a great way to grow up actually.

The fields opposite our house, where my mum still lives, are all open, and they rotate the crops each year. We used to go out and help pick. One year it could be runner beans. Another year beetroot. We were always out in the field, learning about local fruit and veg. We were definitely luckier than most in that respect.

What are your earliest memories of cheese?

When I was growing up there was always Cheddar in the fridge – and Dairylea or Laughing Cow! I had a very early love for Marmite mixed with Dairylea on toast. I also like cottage cheese and Marmite.

Did you always want to work in food?

No, not really. I didn’t have any aspirations when I was younger. The thing I was most interested in and best at at school was science, so I looked at going into something in that arena, and I was steered by a careers officer towards Sainbury’s. It was food. I didn’t have that in mind at all! It was all new. But it was fascinating. They had their own laboratories and anything with a Sainsbury’s label on it had to be tested there. I went in for an interview and it sounded quite interesting. When I’d been thinking about the science world, food was not something I would have considered at the time. I was 17 when I started with them.

What were the responsibilities of a 17-year-old lad in a food tech lab?

Initially I worked in the microbiology department…and next door was where the buyers came to do their tastings. Suddenly you’d see someone turning up to try biscuits. The next minute they were trying dog food – that genuinely used to happen. 

I thought it looked like a great job. I got chatting with them, got to know them and what they did and how they worked with the products. I spent a bit of time in the chemistry lab along the way, but when a role came up in the buying department I applied for it and got the job as a junior buyer when I was about 19 or 20 in the cheese department. It was brilliant. I loved cheese anyway, but that introduced me to a load of different cheeses I’d never experienced before, and to the world of buying.

Was the buying world as glamourous as you hoped it would be?

In those days it was mostly the same as it is now, although there are a few extra considerations today. It was about the interaction with the people as much as anything else. Building relationships with the suppliers. It was a new world to me – getting involved in negotiations, visiting suppliers, and seeing how things were made, and their provenance. It really piqued my interest in that side of things and grabbed me from the very beginning. That feeling has stayed with me all the way through.

What was the cheese landscape like when you started out?

Looking back it was really different. We did introduce a few new things to the market, like Epoisses and Brillat-Savarin. I remember the day we tasted that in the office. My boss just looked at me and said, ‘that’s like eating nectar’ and his eyes glazed over.

Cheddar was just huge. Sainsbury’s had its own cutting and packing facility for Cheddar, and we had a grader who went out and selected them, and I was involved in the buying of those as well. Back then retail was dominated by mild and mature Cheddar. They had the biggest volumes. Thankfully that’s turned on its head these days, with extra mature and vintage taking the lead, as they should.

It wasn’t so artisan in those days, but we were still dealing with what were then small family businesses, like Barber’s, who were a big supplier, and still are today. One of the nicest things, as I’ve gotten older, is that I’ve had the joy and benefit of working with more than one generation of cheesemaker. In the last few years we’ve had some brilliant next generation makers coming through who are so enthusiastic and full of ideas. It’s heartwarming to see that.

How did your career progress from Sainsbury’s?

While I was there I spent quite a long period in the frozen food department buying vegetables and fresh fish and desserts and a few other pieces. It was a fascinating area to work in. As I was going through, and going up the ladder, I got to the point where to progress really someone had to die or retire. It really was like that. And I became a bit disillusioned really. Then I got offered a job by someone at Somerfield down in Bristol. I loved Bristol and my brother lived there at the time. It was an amazing place. I had to take it.

Somerfield was going through big changes, introducing a lot of people from other retailers with different experiences, and that’s why they approached me. I felt I had nothing to lose. I was there for eight years, again, doing frozen food, but mostly cheese.

Then I decided I would leave retail because I wanted to be more involved with producers - to really tell that story more and more, which at the time wasn’t an easy thing to do. People weren’t singing about producers and championing them. It was more about the price.

I was offered a job with a wholesaler in Kent who supplied retailers and a few other places, and got to work with lots more small producers from both the UK and in Europe. I was really then able to expand my knowledge base, and learn more about how cheese was made, how it changes through the year, and how it is a living breathing thing and needs to be treated that way. You have to handle it with respect. I learnt a lot in that time period. Especially how good cheese takes happy animals and nice people to get it right. I live by that.

That business was really successful, but after it went through a buyout by Arla I took the decision to move on, and Tim Rowcliffe approached me and offered me a job. It was the final step into working with true artisan producers. It was like opening a door and walking into the sunshine. Such a great feeling.

What were the early days at Rowcliffe like?

I started off doing a lot of the work with Waitrose. We had a separate building dedicated to them. One of my key roles was to come in and source suppliers to get what today is called Waitrose 1. To get that moving. So it involved working with quite a lot of producers. We brought that range on and got the category going for them. Everything we did and do now was people first and then product. We live and die by that. We introduced some fabulous products in that range through those relationships.

What are the most noticeable changes you’ve experienced in cheese in the past few decades?

We now have in the region of 800 cheeses made in the UK, which is brilliant. For me, I look back at what the core reason of that was, and why it had to happen. It’s because the dairy industry was on its knees, and people were having to diversify with very little support, often just to survive. Cheesemaking was one way to do that. It sounds nice and romantic, but to set up making cheese, and to actually do it properly, takes a lot of investment and work. It’s sad that’s the way things had to happen for a lot of people, but the positive is now we have these amazing, amazing products out there, and we have a consumer who understands them better and wants to learn more about them.

In my early days of buying and supermarkets, there wasn’t that real thirst from people. They didn’t travel for food, and didn’t have that interest in learning about what they were eating. Now that couldn’t be more different. Food is so emotive, and is something almost everyone has a passion for, and fortunately it’s cheese they want to learn more about.

The biggest step change for me is talking to people and hearing how much they love cheese, and how much they know about it. It’s the polar opposite to what I would have experienced 30 years ago.

What do you think are the most pressing issues in cheese right now?

I think there’s a lot of pressure on makers as the costs are huge. The biggest is the pressure of recovering the right price of milk. Then there are very very high input costs which can affect artisan cheesemakers in different ways to large producers.

Consistent labour is also a big problem. When you’re making cheese you need good people who will learn from you and stay with you. In the last three or four years it’s been really really hard for most small businesses to achieve that consistency with staff. We’ve seen that having a negative impact especially around Christmastime.

And there’s a lot of uncertainty as well about what is happening with the market going forward. Inflation has slowed down, which has helped a bit, but the issue’s not gone away. We need to be strongly supporting artisan cheesemakers.

You’ve been involved in cheese judging since the late 90s – any tips for new judges?

I think you’ve just got to be honest with yourself and the cheesemaker when you’re judging. On the day you’ve got to make allowances for the fact it may have travelled the length of the country or from another country entirely to get to where it is. Just be genuine. If you think a cheese smells like your nephew’s trainers, that’s what it smells like!

And find the positives. I can’t think of any occasion where there wouldn’t be some positive takeaway – even if you don’t think a product is quite right. Just be honest about it. Producers appreciate the feedback.

Also, enjoy it. It’s a really great experience, and you can learn a lot. If you are a new judge you’ll be paired with someone who’s been doing it for quite some time.

What do you love most about your job?

It’s the people and the energy. The people in the office are passionate about what they do, and the producers are passionate about what they do. I get the best of both worlds. I’ve made a lot of friendships along the way as well. Often I’ll get a phone call and it’s 10 minutes before we get around to the reason they rang me.

I absolutely love it. This is a small industry and people can move around a lot, but once you get into it, it gets its hooks into you and if you’re like me you’ll never consider moving away from it.

What’s on your desert island cheeseboard?

I have to be careful what I say here! I’m going to have a Shropshire Blue. I would always choose that. And an artisan farmhouse Cheddar, a fresh or semi-soft goats’ cheese, and a wild card like Epoisses. Something a bit funky.

With accompaniments I think you should have whatever you want really. Crackers and fruit always work, but that doesn’t always have to be grapes. Figs and pears are brilliant, especially with blue cheese. And dried fruit as well. Something I’m seeing a lot of is people looking for savoury accompaniments for cheese. At the moment we’re working on pairing Asian flavours, which is very interesting.

Ultimately though, I don’t think there are any limits. The days of saying ‘you must this with this’ are over. For example, I don’t have wine with cheese. I’d always pair it with beer.