What’s new this month – Anniversary Edition

3rd Anniversary Sunday May 19

I can still hear the team saying, ‘Hand sanitiser? mask?’ as people queued through a small entrance in our market boundary. It was 2021 – we started the market under strict Pandemic regulations.

Visitors were counted in and counted out, masks were obligatory, no tasting cheese, no eating or drinking inside the market, no standing still apart from in a queue and most certainly no singing, chatting or just browsing!

We did not know if people would come, and here we are about to celebrate our 3rd birthday and with a huge thank you to you all, we not only survived those strange times, but we have flourished. So, a very Happy Birthday to all of us, volunteers, traders and you, our market visitors alike – we all play our part – ‘Happy 3rd Birthday!’.

Meet the Cheese Market Team here: Chiswick Cheese Market

Donna Freed from the Cheese market talking cheese at Kindred with Zaineb from @basket_press_wines talking wine in March.

Not just cheese …

We are a busy crew away from the market as well.

As a team, we have been leading cheese tasting evenings @londonkindred since March and this month Abi will be chatting about the intriguing world of ‘underground’ cheeses. I can guarantee you will most definitely taste more than one cheese you have never tried before – challenge accepted?

This is not only Abi passing on her broad and deep cheese knowledge but really giving us value for money by using her extensive wine qualifications to pair them with some truly exceptional drinks – what is not to like about that?

Tickets are available on: Eventbrite.co.uk

Matthew O’Callaghan at front instructing judges before judging begins – organiser and major force in artisan food industry

This month I have been judging at www.artisancheeseawards.com held in Melton Mowbray. You’re forgiven for thinking that it is all about pies there, but it’s not; this competition is about Artisan cheese.

Judging the Artisan Cheese Awards

It is not open to any of the big boys of cheese production but the smaller artisan producers, so there are quite a high number of newcomers, which is brilliant. It is also open to Southern Irish cheeses and there was a truly great showing from south of the border and I felt very lucky to be sampling them. A little bit about judging – just in case you are interested…

Firstly, as a judge, you must know your cheese – this is not really about what you like or don’t like, it’s about knowing what a great example of a particular style of cheese is – in exactly the same way in order to know if a Beaujolais is great you have to know the characteristics of the wine to start with.

You must be able to identify faults, errors in both looks and flavour and then admire and enjoy extraordinary flavours and textures that a producer may have been able to achieve in their cheese.

It’s a serious business and I was lucky enough to be judging alongside some of the most experienced palates in the cheese industry. Each cheese is given proper consideration. We tasted, deliberated, discussed, and voted for over 4 hours. Each category puts forward their champion to be judged against the other category champions to find the ‘Supreme Champion’.

To be a great cheese it has to have a great look and texture, mouth feel and above its flavour must be excellent. That’s it really, I guess – it’s a tough job but someone has to do it!.. no, seriously after three years of study I am thrilled to be part of the cheese judging community.

The results are announced at The Artisan Cheese Fair next weekend. I’ll be there on Saturday as it is a spectacle well worth visiting and back to Chiswick for our market on Sunday – double cheese this weekend for me!

More info meltonfestivals.co.uk

Brie de Melun
Introducing ‘the Mother of all Bries’

I am so excited that @thefrenchcomte will be bringing a very special cheese – Brie de Melun. This is the original Brie – this is the first Brie – this is the mother of all Bries.

Made with a longer fermentation period and hardly any rennet, this is an extraordinary pungently flavoured, creamy textured, almost rudely unctuous cheese made with raw cow’s milk. Like Brie de Meaux? If yes then OMG you are in for such a treat! It’s on my shopping list early so I don’t miss out.

Why not have a birthday splurge and get one of our bespoke Cheesewick tea towels or the Prada bag of cheese – a Cheesewick Tote to carry your purchases this month? All profits go into our charity funds.

And…

You’ve heard of Real Ale and Real Food … This is the Real Cheese Project

Introducing @therealcheeseproject. We are very excited to be on board with the launch of a brand-new cheese resource set up with the Cheese lover in mind – not only telling you about the cheeses and the producers but where you can buy near you and offering wonderful subscriptions to help you taste your way through the world of British Artisan Cheese.

They are hosting the first round of The People’s Choice Territorial Cheese competition at our market THIS SUNDAY, 19 May (what a thrill) and you are the judges! So come along to the market, log in, taste cheese and vote.

It’s as simple as that – a different category every 30 minutes so stay for a while and be the judge of more than one style of cheese from Cheddar to Red Leicester, from Caerphilly to Lancashire. The ones we all think are the best will go forward to the next round at our market in July (watch this space for news about that event as there are some very special judges coming along!)

Gosh that was a lot for one month’s blog! I guess it’s true to say that from our constrained beginnings during the pandemic The Chiswick Cheese Market has really grown into a force bigger than we could have imagined.

Over the three years we have donated thousands of pounds to charity and in sponsorship to the Artisan Cheese industry, we believe that we have brought many visitors to our neighbourhood, we have become an established voice in the cheese industry (even had a mention on National TV on The Apprentice) and hopefully have given locals a great place to visit once a month and share happy times with friends and family whilst tasting and buying some exceptional cheeses. In short, I think we have really brought cheese home to Cheesewick! See you on Sunday!