Chinese cheese, who knew?
| Beijing
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
聽Moving from Paris to Beijing had one major downside for me 鈥� I had to go cold turkey on cheese.
聽No longer. I have discovered Liu Yang, aka Le Fromager de Pekin, who has set up an artisanal cheesery on the outskirts of the Chinese capital and produces some remarkably authentic renditions of French cheese, with Chinese characteristics.
聽Mr. Liu discovered cheese 10 years ago in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand, where he went to study management. He loved it from the start. Later, Liu moved to Corsica, the home of goat and sheep鈥檚 milk cheeses, which convinced him to drop international trade and learn cheesemaking instead.
聽When he returned home in 2007 he began trying to make the stuff.
聽It didn鈥檛 work at first. Not only is Chinese milk different from French milk, but Beijing鈥檚 humid climate made things challenging.
聽Experimentation bore fruit, though, and now Liu makes a 鈥淏eijing Grey鈥� reminiscent of Camembert and a splendid, subtle 鈥淰alencay鈥�-style pyramid with a hint of goat, creamy on the outside and crumbly inside, as part of his range.
