, but those who tried it were impressed and cheesemongers jumped on the bandwagon. 'People became curious about these new British cheeses that flew in the face of the perception they all had before, which was that our cheese was rubbish.' Fast forward to 2022 and you can find British cheeses all over Paris, whether in cheesemongers or restaurants. At L'Entente, Woodhead will often have a wheel of cheddar and a truckle of stilton on display to woo customers, 90 per cent of whom are French. They come for roasts, the wellingtons and the cheese, also found on the Welsh rarebit. 'There was always a bit of a market for good cheddar and stilton in Paris, but it has become cool and trendy with the rise of bistros and natural wine,' Woodhead explains. 'If you go to the top 100 trendy little bohemian bourgeois restaurants, chances are you'll find Stichelton [a raw milk version of Stilton from Nottinghamshire] at half of them.' While Paris and larger cities are at the vanguard, Hinds has seen British cheese in small-town shops, particularly in areas with larger British populations like the Dordogne. People all over are becoming more open-minded in the age of Instagram. 'It's only the ge){kind=link}
Where once our fromage was spurned, now our Gallic neighbours can’t get enough of it…
Find yourself in a Parisian restaurant these days and chances are that alongside roquefort and comte you will see cheddar or stilton on the cheese board. In fact, having shaken off its reputation for wax-wrapped, mass-produced, tasteless blocks, British cheese is the hot new thing.
Over the past decade, overall exports of British cheese have been growing. Wyke Farms, the large Somerset producer, now sends 6,000 tonnes of cheese per year to over 160 countries. According to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, in the second quarter of 2022, exports to Europe were up 22 per cent on the same period the year before (although 2021 was hampered by Brexit uncertainties).
Our neighbour across the Channel is emerging as a key market. In 2014, the artisan cheesemonger Neal’s Yard Dairy exported €500,000 of British cheese to France; by 2021, the figure had jumped to €1 million, with France becoming the second-largest market after the United States.
British cheese is en vogue. Artisan fromagerie Taka & Vermo, near the Gare du Nord in Paris, stocks cheddar and stilton. At restaurants like Frenchie and L’Entente, diners can end a meal with a British board featuring classics including stilton and cheddar and less well-known cheeses. Oliver Woodhead, the British owner of L’Entente, has even been on French TV to espouse British fromage. British cheese is no longer a joke.