Crackers About Cheese

If you're crackers about cheese there's one event that you can't afford to miss this year ? The Fine Cheese Co. Festival at Milsom Place during the Great Bath Feast 2014.

Not only will the nation’s top artisan cheese makers gather in Bath on Saturday 25^th October but the Fine Cheese Co. will showcase just how many different ways cheese can be accompanied. So if one feels that cream crackers are so last year try crackers with basil, chive, fennel, fig, rosemary or even red hot chilli.  Crackers are also matched with specific types of cheese – there are crackers for goats cheese, for percorino, for sheep cheese, for pungent cheese, for brie or mature cheddar. With such an extraordinary range of options it is a little disappointing to hear that the number one selling cracker is Extra Virgin olive oil and sea salt, but it can accompany most cheeses so it's a good all-rounder.

The next consideration in how to accessorise the cheese – what accompaniment appeals ranging from fruits with cheese made from damsons or quince, gooseberry or guava, fig or papaya, cherry or lime and chilli.  The exciting news is that the Fine Cheese Co. will be exporting to the French and they've even persuaded them to venture away from their preferred baguette with cheese to try toast for cheese, packed with magical ingredients like dates, hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds.

For something massively indulgent one could anoint hard powerful cheeses with a drizzle of Moscato Grape Nectar – a unique and ancient nectar from Pantelleria, off the coast of Italy. It has a honeyed sweetness, wine fragrance and a thick, runny consistency.

A fresh and fruity Peach Chutney can accompany crumbly cheeses such as Cheshire and Wensleydale and a sweet Damson Fruit Puree tastes delicious dripped over a powerful soft cheese such as Brie de Meaux or Camembert.

The all-day event is free and visitors will be able to taste great cheese, make new discoveries and new friends as this is a unique opportunity to talk with our greatest cheese makers who will be lining the room. The West Country will be well represented of course, but there'll be cheese makes from the entire country from Northumberland to Cornwall. The Grubb family (who make Cashel Blue) and Cooleeney Farmhouse Cheese Makers, making the pilgrimage from Ireland. There'll also be the chance to sample Staffordshire cheese now being made again after an absence of more than three decads. Also The 2013 Supreme British Champion Cheese: Tunworth will make an appearance with maker Stacey Hedges.

For those who want to taste The Fine Cheese Co's three great unpasteurised Cheddars head to head and discuss their merits, this will be possible under the tutelage of the makers: Jamie Montgomery, James Keen and Tom Carver of Westcombe.

Over 30 Cheese Makers include:-

Appleby’s of Hawkstone                                             Neal’s Yard Creamery

Bath Soft Cheese Co.                                                 Northumberland Cheese Co.

Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers                            The Old Cheese Room

Caws Cenarth                                                             Ram Hall Dairy

Cooleeney Blue Cheese Co.                                      Sharpham Dairy

Cornish Blue Cheese Co.                                           Sleight Farm

Cropwell Bishop Creamery                                        Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Co.

Curworthy Cheese                                                      Staffordshire Cheese

Holden Farm Dairy                                                     Stichelton Dairy

Hampshire Cheeses                                                   Ticklemore Cheese

Homewood Cheeses                                                  The Traditional Cheese Dairy

James’s Cheese                                                         Trethowan’s Dairy                              

Keen’s Cheddar                                                          Westcombe Dairy

Mrs Kirkham’s                                                             Whitelake Cheeses

Lyburn Farmhouse Cheese                                        Woodbridge Farm Partnership

JA & E Montgomery                                                   The Fine Cheese Co.

For more information on the Cheese Festival can be found at milsomplace.co.uk.

For images and media information, please contact Nicky Hancock at Hancock Communications on Tel: 01225 332299 or e-mail:[email protected].