My French Cheese Workshops Are Now Online!

If you've read this blog for any time now, you know how much I love cheese! And after weeks of working out a new (for me) way to share this great passion with you, I've finally done it.

Three virtual workshops, which I've entitled, French Cheese Fundamentals, are online and available on Eventbrite. They've been up for a few days, but I've haven't had the chance to share them here yet.

Part One is the Basics, a Cheese 101 that covers history, terminology, the French cheese families, seasonality - it's a lot of practical, nerdy information.

Part Two is all about creating Cheese Boards. You'll learn about tasting, serving, slicing, shopping and building beautiful boards.

Part Three is about Pairing cheese with wine, other beverages and food. Even though there are no hard and fast rules, there is plenty of information to learn about creating delicious flavor marriages. 

I'm keeping the numbers limited to just 15 screens for a more personal experience, however I will continue to add the workshops to the calendar on a rotating basis, so if you miss one, it will be offered again in a few weeks time. 

The Basics has already sold out for December (yay!), but there is another one being offered in mid-January, and there is still space available on Cheese Boards this month. Pairing Cheese is being offered for the first time in early January. 

I hope to see you there and if you have any questions, please contact me at: louloufrance@gmail.com

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5 Things

1) My kind of cake!

2) Do I spy Emily in Paris? 

 

3) Giant bouquets of autumn hydrangeas

4) A modern cheese board

5) Café life

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La Journée Mondiale du Fromage

It's World Cheese Day! My favorite day!




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Fromagerie Marie-Anne Cantin

One of my favorite cheese shops in Paris. And her selection of Comté is incredible!

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Can I Eat That Moldy Cheese?

Cheese + Mold. Is it safe to eat? This is a question I get asked a lot!

This article on the Bon Appetit website came across my radar the other day (even though it was written in 2018!) and after I read the following paragraph, I knew I had to share it.

"The first thing you’ve got to understand is that, by and large, microorganisms like mold are what makes cheese, well, cheese. “In a lot of ways, cheese is mold,” explains Morillo. With the notable exception of fresh cheeses that are meant to be consumed shortly after they are made (mozzarella, ricotta, queso fresco, etc.), most cheeses owe their distinct deliciousness and texture to the microbiological alchemy that occurs when mold, bacteria, and other microorganisms feast on the proteins and sugars present in milk, transforming them into a wide range of flavorful compounds. (Science is cool!)"

Yes, science is cool! And mold, when it comes to cheese, can definitely be our friend.

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Today's Cheese

The minute I started to unwrap this one, I was in heaven! SO lusciously smelly, oozing and sticky. We haven't tasted it yet, but I expect wonderful things.

Oh, and for those of you who are curious, it's an ewe's milk, washed rind cheese from Corsica. I can't wait to try it!


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Life In France Includes A Lot Of Cheese!

Shopping at Laurent Dubois for one of my favorite Alpine cheeses, Tomme de Chartreuse.



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5 Things

1) Our neighborhood

2) Enzo really needs to learn to chill out

3) Drinks on the terrace at Treize au Jardin


4) Evening light in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

5) Goat cheese - ash covered and sprinkled with sarriette


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Off The Beaten Path In Paris: La Ferme d'Alexandre

Located just a block away from La Grande Épicerie in Saint Germain, la Ferme d'Alexandre doesn't feel "off the beaten path," but I wanted to share it with you anyway. I've come to love this place, not only for their fabulous cheese selection, but for the kindness and knowledge of  the owner Alex, and the entire staff.

I shop here every week to  buy fromage for the French cheese workshop we offer at Paris by Mouth, so I've gotten to know them and what they offer very well. And if you follow me on Instagram, you've most likely seen many of their cheeses and their beautiful blue and gold tile floor!



They always have some interesting sheep milk cheeses from the Pyrénées and right now their goat cheese section is amazing! You can also find the last raw milk farmer produced Époisses in France here, as well as a handful of delicious Italian cheeses.
And in addition to cheese, there is a good selection of charcuterie, unpasteurized butter, cream straight from farms in Normandy, honey, small producer wine and jam, and bread on the weekends.
If you find yourself near either of Alex's fromageries, they are definitely worth a visit!



La Ferme d'Alexandre
19 rue Saint-Placide
75006 Paris

and

21 rue Mouton Duvernet
75014 Paris

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Off The Beaten Path: Cheese Shops In Paris

Last week France feted its National Day of Cheese, a day I love to celebrate. (yeah...who am I kidding...I celebrate French cheese pretty much every day!)

But it got me thinking about the fromageries here in Paris. There are a handful of famous fromagères and fromagers in the city who are lauded over and over, but what about the minor players? What about the small, off the beaten path cheese shops? What about the passionate cheesemongers with only a few staff members who take precious time off from their already busy schedules to visit farms and find small producers so they can offer new and interesting cheese and dairy to their customers? Let's talk about them. And let's support them!

And there is a lot to talk about!

I've met classical musicians, bankers and accountants who left their careers to become cheesemongers and to open up their own cheese shops, and there's even an actual dairy in Paris now. I see more and more young people buying up and breathing new life into outdated fromageries.

One of these places is La Ferme du Hameau.

I first visited this little place when we moved into the neighborhood over 3 years ago. There was a nice young man running it, however the atmosphere felt a bit triste and the cheese selection wasn't that great so I only shopped there a couple of times.

Then in late December I read some exciting news. Pierre Brisson, the lovely owner of Paroles de Fromagers in the 10ème arrondissement, had purchased La Ferme du Hameau. I've known this guy for several years and he is a gem. And he knows his cheese!

He's slowly renovating the space and expanding his selection of cheese, jam, honey, wine and craft beers. His cheeses include the usual suspects, in addition to a good number of farmer and small producer offerings. It's rare for me to discover a cheese that I haven't already tried, but his boutiques often have something new for me to take home.

Yes I know, le 15ème is a bit off the beaten path for most Parisians, but sometimes it's worth making a trip out to "the country" (as my friends in the Marais like to jokingly call it) for special little places. N'est ce pas?

La Ferme du Hameau
223 rue de la Croix Nivert
75015 Paris

Pierre is also an affineur and offers workshops on cheese making at his shop in the 10ème.

Paroles de Fromagers
41 rue du Faubourg du Temple
75010 Paris






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5 (Fromage) Things

1) Oozy grilled cheese at Paroles de Fromagers




2) goat and goat and goat




3) Emballage




4) Merci to the monks for making such delicious cheese!




5) Garrigue





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Montrachet

I've always loved the subtle flavors that leaves, bark, ash and herbs lend to cheese. Montrachet is no exception.
It is wrapped in a chestnut leaf and is one of a handful of goat cheeses produced in Burgundy, a region that is famous for its wine, bien sûr, but also for its cow's milk cheeses, especially of the washed rind variety. Cheeses like Époisses, Abbaye de Cîteaux, Soumaintrain and Ami du Chambertin.
But the popularity of cows in Burgundy doesn't mean you should disregard the wonderful goat cheeses from this region, such as Mâconnais and Charolais, both of which can be made entirely from goat's milk, and sometimes from a blend of cow and goat's milk.

Montrachet is made by a sole producer located in Saint-Gengoux-le-National, a tiny town about an hour north of Mâcon. It is a semi-firm, unpasteurized goat cheese shaped like a squat little barrel. The chestnut leaf keeps it moist and adds a slight note of earthiness. It is tied with a strip of raffia, that when unwrapped reveals a crinkly rind dotted with blue mold that contrasts nicely with a pale, fluffy, natural rind.

The flavor is a little heady at first, then mellows out to sweet, tangy, slightly salty and milky notes. Overall it is a relatively mild cheese, but at the same time offers a richness and a long, satisfying finish. The texture is quite dense and clay like.
It is a delicious cheese that packs a lot of flavor into a nice little package.

Enjoy with a glass of white Burgundy.

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5 Things

1) A long line, but worth the wait for this delicious bowl of udon at Kunitoraya.




2) I could spend every day surrounded by Monet's Waterlilies at le Musée de l'Orangerie

3) Sunny afternoon apéro at le café

4) Recently had the chance to stop by Paroles de Fromagers. I highly recommend this new fromagerie in the 10ème.

5) Hard at work




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Le Trèfle du Perche

Walk into any fromagerie in France during goat cheese season (April to November) and you will be faced with a tempting array of wrinkly rectangles, fresh drums, blue mold covered cylinders, two-toned cones, grey pyramids, white diamonds, discs wrapped in leaves, and a distinctive four-leaf clover, le Trèfle du Perche.

In the French cheese world, this one is fairly recent creation.
Back in 1999 a group of 7 artisan cheesemakers in the northern part of the Loire Valley and the southern part of Normandy established l’Association des Fromagers Caprins Perche et Loir (after numerous meetings involving copious amounts of local cheese and wine I like to think) and created a new goat cheese. Their goal was to come up with a fromage de chèvre that would be instantly recognizable and that would become associated with their region. During its inception, one of the members spotted an unusual, four-leaf clover shaped clay cheese mold in a local rural museum and the rest is history.

Beneath its thin rind of blue-gray ash and mold, the snowy white interior is rich, creamy and melt-in-your-mouth tender. Depending on its age, the flavors can range from fresh milk and hazelnuts, to peppery with a long finish.

Le Trèfle, which means "clover" in French, has been in production since 2005 and is currently made by a dozen farmers in 4 French departments; the Eure-et-Loir, the Loir-et-Cher, the Sarthe and the Orne. This little goat cheese is unpasteurized, with a minimum affinage* of 10 days and a maximum of about 1 month. In 2012 the l’Association des Fromagers Caprins Perche et Loir (AFCPL) applied for an AOC for their cheese. I'm wishing them the best of luck!

A few wine suggestions to pair with le Trèfle; a Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley if you prefer white, or a Gamay from the Loire Valley if you prefer red.





*ageing





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P'tit Vache Affiné Au Pommeau

Every time I discover a new cheese my heart skips a beat.

After tasting over 221 French cheeses, my Fête du Fromage project reached a bit of a dead end. I rarely came across a cheese that I hadn't already tasted and in general my passion for writing about cheese waned.
So, I kind of gave up.

Then this morning I spotted a locally produced fromage de vache at the Bayeux market and my desire to share a new (to me) French cheese was rekindled.



Le P'tit Vache Affiné au Pommeau is a young, unpasteurized cow's milk cheese produced on a small farm near Villers-Bocage. It has been aged for a mere two weeks, during which its rind is washed daily in Pommeau, a fruity mixture of AOC Calvados and apple juice that is enjoyed locally as an apéritif.

The pâte has a very fine, crumbly texture and the flavor is sweet, lactic and mild, with stronger aromas and flavors on the rind. I expected it to pack more of a punch, so was pleasantly surprised by its softness.

I think it will make a delicious breakfast cheese, spread on a slice of toasted baguette. (Normandy salt butter optional)

 

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