Patricia is the Founder of the hugely popular La Fromagerie. She's been interviewed countless times by the likes of The Guardian, The Standard, The Times and The Financial Times. The forward for her book Cheese was written by Jamie Oliver and recommended by Nigella Lawson. Nigel Slater also praised her book The Cheese Room on its cover. She was a guest on Gordon Ramsey's Passion for Flavour who is reportedly a loyal customer.
Jamie Oliver told The Standard, if you're planning a first date in London, you should go to La Fromgarie and enjoy your purchases in Regent's Park. "Go to La Fromagerie and say, ‘I want to have a little cheese tasting to take on a picnic.’ Don’t tell them anything. They’ll choose it for you. Believe in the cheese. The power of cheese is profound."
They have three locations in central London, Highbury N5, Marylebone W1, & Bloomsbury WC1. The first shop, situated in Highbury Park, opened in September 1992, the second shop, Cheese & Wine Bar, on Moxon Street (just off Marylebone High Street), opened in November 2002. In 2017 we opened our Restaurant & Shop on Lamb's Conduit St in the heart of Bloomsbury. All our locations feature our signature cheeserooms.
Notes from the episode (and some extra):
Some wine and cheese Patricia sent to me:
Robiola in foglie (Piemonte goat’s cheese in fig leaves)
Beaufort (CHALET D'ALPAGE)
Roussette (“a beautiful expression of alpine wine”) perfect with hard cheeses like Beaufort, Raclette, fondu, Grier, Reblochon
[Jean-Francois Quenard AOC Roussette Anne-Sophie]
Buffalo blue cheese from Bergamot [unusual to have at a Northern Italian farm, usually around Naples, but the grass is better North so the milk and fats are different making it more mozzarella style]
Book recommendations:
Best book to get: French Cheese by Major Patrick Rance (he also wrote one on English cheese)
[Patricia’s books: The Cheeseroom (good for finding places to travel to), Cheese]
Oxford Companion to Cheese (she has a few entries in there)
If you want to get into sparkling wines, start with Crémant. There’s one in every region you can visit in France so wherever you go you’ll get something great.
Alsace for natural wines (know how to deal with the acidity because of their muscat grapes or their Gewürztraminer grapes (delicious grape “has that sort of attar of roses thing going on” can be a desert wine or a table wine) “they know how to translate those grapes” Alsace has great wines because of the style of their wine: “Fresh, vibrant, racy, dry.” Lends itself to natural wines. Natural wines are often dry and vinegary “but they know how to deal with that.” New natural wines coming out of Alsace vineyard are also great and people don’t believe they’re natural.
Great quality natural wines are big with cheese right now
Current summer wine: Jean Francois Quenard AOC Roussette Anne Sophie 2022, Chignin, Savoie
Grape: 100% Organic Altesse
Roussette de Savoie is the local name for Altesse. This cuvee, named after the Quenard's daughter, Anne-Sophie, who has joined the winemaking team. The grapes come from 25 year old vines on clay-limestone soil. The wine is vinified and aged in 600-litre tanks for 12 months on lees.
Cheeses that go with Whiskey: blue cheese, Stilton or Stichelton, parmesan (“because it’s salty and Whisky has a salty hit”), cheddar
How to properly taste cheese with Whiskey: Taste the whiskey first neat to coat your mouth then a little splash of water to open it out
Cheeses that go with Saké: mozzarella, blue cheese, comté, le barisien:
Comté d’Estive with Sichuan pepper, Franche-Comté, Soumaintrain Fermier, Gaec Leclere, Yonne, Bugundy, Le Barisien, Meuse Department, Grand-Est [add a Sichuan pepper to the board]
Staples for a her cheese boards: Beaufort (high alpine summer cheese), Comté, some English cheeses
