"En faire tout un fromage." Literally. It makes sense that the founder of a new cheese museum in Paris would have cheese as his profile picture on Whatsapp.
The colour of Cantaloupe, cheesemaker Pierre Brisson tells me it's Mimolette - a strong cheese traditionally produced in Lille that he'd carefully carved into a flower. "It's a technique to make the cheese more appealing," Brisson says. Lovely, but let's be honest: when it comes to cheese, most people don't need any floral flourishes to kickstart their salivary glands.
In fact, the uglier and stinkier the better. Whether grated, melted, baked, sliced or slabbed on a board, France in particular is a nation of fromage lovers that camembert a day without it. A report earlier this year ranked France the in the world, which is understandable considering they're also its biggest global importers and produce 246 varieties in total.
Many of the world's most famous cheeses are French: roquefort, brie, morbier, cantal, camembert and Époisses de Bourgogne, the latter of which was crowned at last year's so-called 'world cup of cheese'. It seems surprising, then, that the gastronomical heaven of Paris is only just opening a museum dedicated to its dairy deities. "I realised that lots of things were already organised in Paris to promote wine.
Wine culture is developed in France. Cheese is also a big thing, but there were no places where people could learn more deeply about the processes of making cheese," Brisson tells Euronews Cultu.
