Speciality Food - October 2025

30 @specialityfood “Cheese pairing for the pros” S ince The Real Cheese Project began I have been busy finding condiments to pair with cheeses. The key to pairing is ensuring that you get the right balance, for example, sweet condiments work with salty umami cheeses such as honey and Stichelton, a rawmilk blue cheese fromNottinghamshire. Tangy and spicy options can pair well with mild and creamy cheeses, like a cumin spiced mango chutney and Kirkham’s Lancashire (seriously great partners). Creating interesting, fun and informative tasting events is a fab way to get to know your customers. Recently I put on a tasting with the awesome comedian, actor and importantly cheese lover Marcus Brigstocke. I thought that I would throw everything at this tasting and literally the guests were blown away by how unique it was. It was sensory in every way possible, the setting was beautiful, there were musical scores written about each cheese being tasted, a different and unique condiment to pair with each cheese, plus a Master of Wine (Katherine Dart MW) who skilfully paired everything together perfectly. At the event the cheese and condiments I selected were also accompanied by the cheesemakers and producers, so Marcus could also interview everyone and find out the stories behind the produce. Katherine JAMES GRANT NO2 POUND STREET Dart MW then presented each wine alongside the cheese and condiments and explained why it worked. It was a fabulous evening with a lot of happy customers taking home a lot of newfound knowledge about the art of pairing. My take home over the last year of finding perfect pairings is to not be afraid of trying something totally different. This really captures the consumer and is further banked for their own cheese board adventures. Try this one for example: Cheddar cheese with creamed horseradish. This works perfectly as the rind of a farmhouse Cheddar is generally rubbed with lard to protect the rind and as the lard is absorbed into the muslin that cloths the cheese it adds to the Cheddar’s surface microflora. The taste just under the rind is of horseradish and mustard, hence the pairing. The creaminess of the horseradish works well with the savoury and buttery Cheddar. Horseradish brings a clean, almost, sweet hot bite that lifts those earthy Cheddar flavours. Horseradish highlights the tang of Cheddar while cutting through the richness, creating a bold and balanced flavour hit. Another awesome pairing recently was with the famous Welsh cheese Saval produced by Caws Teifi in Llandysul, with Two & One olive oil. The fats in Saval give a creamy, buttery mouth-coating texture. The olive oil layers on a liquid grassy fat that softens and amplifies the cheese’s texture. The oil extends the finish in your mouth. So, get your pairings written down and share themwith your friends and customers. Make great cheese an experience whilst supporting fabulous producers of condiments and wine by creating the perfect combinations. London to host the biggest gathering of Irish cheesemakers in four decades The finishing touches are being put in place for a very exciting cheese event in London thismonth. Bord Bia, in collaborationwith Cais, working alongside the SCA, will bring 15 farmhouse Irish cheesemakers to Browns Covent Garden on 16th October, in celebration of the country’s rich and varied cheesemaking history, and tomark the beginning of new relationships in the industry between Ireland the UK, opening up trade routes that will help bringmore Irish cheeses than ever before to our shores. It is the biggest meeting of Irish cheesemongers in Britain since the early 1980s. TimRowcliffe, representing the SCA, has been heavily involved in the project, and says he, Bord Bia, Cais, and themakers themselves, cannot wait to demonstrate to buyers, wholesalers, and independent retailers the breadth and beauty of Irish cheese. “Formany, many years, Irish and British farmhouse cheesemakers were joined at the hip,” Timexplains. “We all know recently there’s been a terrifically great story to tell about English and Scottish farmhouse cheeses, but Irish cheeses have drifted. I hate to blame these things entirely on Brexit, but it didmake it muchmore difficult to import into the UK and, as a consequence, Irish cheese dropped off the radar.” Now, Tim is delighted to confirm, those logistical issues have been solved. “We no longer have the same obstacles andwe’re on the brink of a great opportunity for Irish farmhouse cheeses to reappear on the British market, which is great news, on both sides of thewater.” Irish cheeses are, he adds, an untappedmarket formany cheesemongers in the UK. “This is a newera for the industry, and such great news. We think therewill be really good demand here from independent retailers to buy inmore Irish cheese, andwe also know larger retailers are keen to see it coming back. At the event therewill be a lot of products the vast majority of buyers don’t knowexist.” Attendees include: Bo Rua Farm, Boyne Valley Farmhouse Cheese, Carrigaline Farmhouse, Cashel Farmhouse Cheese, Coolattin Cheddar, Cooleeney Farm, Durrus Farmhouse Cheese, Hegarty Cheese, Killeen Farmhouse Cheese, Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese, LeitrimHill, Milleens Cheese, Rockfield Dairy/ Velvet Cloud, St Tola and Toonbridge Dairy. Registration for the event (buyers, wholesalers and retailers only) is still open. Email estelle.alley@bordbia.ie or lucy.donegan@bordbia.ie We all know there’s been a great story to tell about English and Scottish farmhouse cheeses, but Irish cheeses have drifted