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Nothing cheesy about it

Cheese truths Will Studd during one of his cheese endeavours

A cheese is a cheese is a cheese is … Well, that’s Gertrude Stein’s famous line with some modification. But is cheese just as simple as it seems? Cheese expert Will Studd will tell you it is not. With every cheese comes a story. &# 8220;Every kind of cheese has a history. It reflects the region it comes from. It speaks tonnes about the culture, the milk. Every flavour is distinctive.”

In India to promote his latest television series, Cheese Slices due to start on Discovery Travel & Living this Tuesday, Studd took the audience through a session of cheese appreciation recently. Creamy and salty, Feta cheese is probably the world’s most popular cheese, but to know that there are no more than 12 cheese makers who produce it the traditional way (in a barrel) can be a bit shocking. “Modernisation has crept in,” he points out. “The reason I am doing this show is also because people need to know about the origin and method behind some cheese. Otherwise our future generations will never get to know anything about them, as they will cease to exist,” explains Studd.

The series has taken Studd across the world in search of the origin of different cheeses. Be it the mountain top in Northern Italy to find out about Gorgonzola, the granddad of all European blue cheeses, or the goat dairy in Poitou, France, to attend the Goat’s Cheese Fair. “It is fascinating. You have to be there to understand it.”

But here’s how to enjoy Feta cheese. “Place a piece of the cheese on your tongue and chew it. But before swallowing it, take a sip of champagne. This lets the taste spread in your mouth.” While sparkling white wine and “the wonderfully sweet” Emmenthal cheese go well, farmhouse cheddar is best had with red wine. Spread a bit of Gouda cheese over a warm brown bread slice and relish the slight caramel sweetness that oozes.

Wine, cheese and bread is a combination Studd vouches for. “These are three naturally fermented manmade food we have, so they gel well with each other. Also, they came about at nearly the same time,” explains the award-winning author. His first book Chalk and Cheese is considered to be one of the finest books in understanding good cheese.

“Cheese is an acquired taste. I don’t expect everyone to like all kinds of cheese. I didn’t like it when I started. And India is just opening up to European cuisine. I am hoping to explore Indian cheese soon. Yak cheese is one thing I heard of,” Studd signs off.

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