Paris: Salon du Fromage
Paris in June 2026 - We visited the Salon Fromage and met some wonderful artisan producers we already work with and some we hope to work with. A great meeting with the cheesemaker of a very particular Valtellina cheese Branzi said that La Fromagerie ticked all the right boxes to showcase their cheese. An unpasteurised mountain cheese where pasture is lush and where the herd are able to roam. We can't wait to get the cheese into our Cheese Rooms in the autumn and match them with the crisp, dry & fragrant local white wines.
We also met with several specialist producers from buttery sables, fish rillettes to classic stocks, sauces & chocolate, not forgetting a producer, very passionate about all things anchovy, white, salted, marinated, paste and smoked, hopefully coming to our shelves very soon!
We were also delighted to meet up with Enric Canut, who has worked with us for many years sourcing exceptional Spanish Cheeses. Marisa, one of our ex-La Fromagerie managers, who now resides in Spain and continues to be our our eyes and ears on all things Spanish!
We also, and perhaps more importantly attended a conference on the dangers of losing raw milk in cheesemaking. Patricia posed a question to the panel about the lack of joined up thinking between France and the UK agricultural government departments to overcome the ban of importing raw milk cow's cheeses and dairy products since end of June last year. We are going to be campaigning to save raw milk and will be showcasing a selection of what we term as pasture & terroir taking in land, pasture management, herds, seasons, regionality and tradition. Raw milk, single herd that is associated with the cheese, made on farm and respecting its season and management of the herd to allow them to roam freely on pasture that is not over used, is seeded only with natural indigenous plants and where 'transhumance' takes place simply by moving the herds to different pastures and then letting herds rest, have their babies and enjoy their life.
Raw milk is the most natural form of food, and the first experience of food we humans enjoy. However, if we don't take care it will be lost forever, and our awareness of a real food will be gone.
If there is now a big question mark going on in France about the importance of raw milk in society and how we feed ourselves, and pushing it to the side lines with re-classification of what unpasteurised milk and dairy products are now termed with Raw Milk given a separate classification we are on a sure-fire road to seeing it as an unimportant part of our well-being.
Watch this space....
