Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BRITANNIA RULES THE CHEESEBOARDS
A homegrown Virtual Cheese Awards has been launched to help get our British cheese industry back on its (cheesy) feet.
The awards, which are the first of their kind, take place online this Saturday with a day of events aimed at educating the public all about British cheeses. So you’ll find out why Red Leicester is red, or Lancashire crumbly, or how they make your Stilton blue.
Chef and foodie Nigel Barden, of Radio 2 Drivetime fame with Simon Mayo, is launching the event and will help judge the Best British Cheese from the 300 cheesy entries.
Ticket holders will get a behindthe-scenes view at how around 300 cheeses are tasted, rated and judged – all in real time – as well as hearing from cheese experts and producers as they answer questions.
Nigel says: “It was an easy decision to be involved with the Virtual Cheese Awards.
“It’s an excellent opportunity to champion our cheese producers, many of whom have struggled during lockdown to get their cheeses to market, particularly with the closure of restaurants, pubs and hotels.”
Yorkshire cheesemaker
Shepherds Purse was one of those hard hit by the crisis and is only now recovering due to exceptional support from retailers.
Joint boss Caroline Bell says: “By April this year, our sales were 50% down and we were forced to furlough many of our team to survive.
“I’m proud to say we’re all back now and producing our range of cheese including our multi award-winning mild and creamy Yorkshire Blue.
“We also launched our new fetastyle cheese, Fettle, during the lockdown to help save sheep milk producers who had tankers full of amazing sheep milk with nowhere to go.”
Another producer, Razan Alsous, founder of Yorkshire Dama cheese, also had all its cheese orders cancelled when the hospitality sector closed its doors.
No stranger to hard times, Razan, who fled the war in Syria with her husband and children, started producing her halloumistyle “Squeaky” cheese in 2014, but it has had a bumpy ride since then.
“We also survived Storm Ciara’s floods this year before the pandemic, but we always get back up and continue our journey,” she says. “Tomorrow is always a better day.
“Bedouins make halloumi cheese from goat’s and sheep’s milk as this is what’s available in the desert, and it gets its distinctive squeaky character because the curd is cooked in the boiling whey.
“We wanted to make the same Syrian cheese using beautiful Yorkshire milk and now we have seven flavours of Squeaky cheese, and had the honour of Princess Anne opening our new premises.”
To find out who wins the seven classic cheese categories and who is crowned Best British, get a ticket for a small donation from virtualcheeseawards.com.