The Week UK - 14.03.2020

57

Normandyappellation

in two would have

meant theslow death of

the remaining genuine

raw-milkcamemberts.

Thatwould havebeen

disastrousfor other

traditional cheeses.

Whenever pasteurised

cheeseshave been

allowed touse theAOP

markelsewhere, they’ve

gobbledup the market

forraw milk cheeses.”

Cheese is apowerful

symbolof French

identity, to theFrench

and to foreigners alike.

Thesheer number and

varietyofFrench cheeses

–far morethanthat of

anyothercountry–sums

up France’s cussedness

and its infinite culinary

imagination. Theformer

presidentCharlesde

Gaulle saidthatit was

impossibleto govern

acountrywith“265

differentkinds of

cheese”,andhehugelyunderstate dthe problem. Depending on

how youcountthem, thereare atleast 700 and maybemore than

1,000typesof cheese in France.

Remember the phrase “cheese-eating surrendermonkeys”?It was

first used jokingly inThe Simpsonsbut wasrapidlyadopted by

US –andBritish–enth usiastsfor the 2003Iraq War asaway

of suggesting the Frenchwereabunchofhedonists, more

interestedin their bellies than their souls.Int ruth,thevarietyof

French cheeseposesaconundrum for France-bashers. Herewe

haveacountry mockedby freedom-loving Anglo-Saxons forits

statist impulses, its suspicion of the market, its overregulationand

restrictions on choice. AndyetFrance has devised hundreds of

ways ofturning cow,sheep and goatmilk into somethingcalled

cheese:all different, all delicious. Theyare notonly different but,

as Fabrice Michelin inthe Jura pointed out, differentat different

times ofthe year. Goats’ cheese isbest inspring, when the soft

grass isup on thehills ofBurgundy or theAuvergne; Camembert

is best inearlysummer, whenthe Normandy grass is atits most

lush. These subtle changes are,however, obliteratedinthe

processes whichmake industrial,pasteurisedcheese.

If you go into any US supermarket,you will see100 kindsof

peanut butter which alltaste thesame. Ditto forbiscuits in

Britain. What the modern world calls “choice” mostly comes

down to marketing. Unfortunately, this is also increasingly true

of cheese in France. Even though the EU is often blamed, it is

only partly to blame, according to Richez-Lerouge. The toughest

dairy ruleshave been encouraged by

successive French governments, she

says, urgedon by the three large

companieswhich dominate the

dairy industry. HervéMons,a

cheesetrader and maker in Roanne

in central France, agrees. “We are

under pressure to apply the same

standardstoartisanalcheese as

factory-made cheese,”hesaid.

“There is no justification on health

or other grounds. The dairy industry

lobbies for standards which would

rob cheeseofall truecharacter

and quality –inother

words, toimpose the

kindof cheese theycan

make cheaply.”

Richez-Lerouge says

that the erosionof

authentic French

cheese ispart of a

“wider hypocrisy”.

For decades, she says,

French governments

have extolled thevirtues

of small-scale farming

and quality food while

“shovelling 80%of

European subsidies

into the pockets of

big farmersand the

agro-industry”. The

French dairy giants,

she says, encourage

the beliefthat

pasteurised cheese

is “safe”and raw-milk

cheesesare “risky”.

But scientific studies

suggest that as long

as raw-milk cheeseis

well-made, itis less

dangerous thanmany

other foods, from hamburgers to,yes,pasteurisedcheese.

The traditional French soft, runny cheese is madewith untreated

milk, maintained at the temperature at whichitleaves thecow’s

udder (37ºC). There isnoattemptmade to killoff allbac teria,

sincethebacteriaare whatmakes the cheese, including the lovely,

chalky whiteflore–aform of fungus –whichappears naturally

on the rind.Therewill almostcertainlybe listeriagerms in the

cheese atsomestage–sincelisteri aiseverywhere–but they

will be fought anddefeated byother naturally occurring

bacteria. Ifthiswere not so,soft cheese would have been

poisoningpeople for centuries.Enormouscare is, however,

neededtopreserve the quality of theraw milkbefore, and

while, thecheeseismade. It is impossible–orimpossibly

expensive –tomakesoftcheesewith untreated milkon an

industrial scale. Large manufacturers,inFrance as elsewhere,

have therefore adopted “pasteurisation” (whichmeans heating

milk to 72ºC)or“thermisation” (heating itto 67ºC). Thefirst

destroys all thenatural bacteria, goodand bad, and therefore

muchof the variety and depth of taste.Contr olled bacteriaare

then introduced by thefactory tosimulate the naturalprocess of

cheesemaking(including penicillium spray to replicate the white

rind). But, of course, it’s not the same.

CampaigningbyRichez-Lerouge and others has slowed the

march ofindustrialcheese with traditional French names in the

past decade. In someyears, the market share forlait crucheeses

has edgedup –onlytoedge down again. The avalancheof

regulationconti nues.“Idon’t

understand why they want us to be

all the same and why they want all

my cheesesto be the same,” said

Michelin,whomakes 13other kinds

of cheese apart fromhisunique Mont

d’Or.“Ofcourse, there is aplace for

factory cheese–but many people also

value thingsthat areauthentic and

individual. There is nothing more

individual thanarealchee se.”

Aversionof this article appeared

on UnHerd.com.

The last word

14 March 2020 THE WEEK

The great cheeses of France:asymbol of its “infinite culinary imagination”

©V

INEPAIR