cheese club and bronte

Our Bronte (standing, far right) popped around yesterday to help us enjoy a Scandinavian themed cheese club. She's a bit of an expert on all things Scandinavian, being from Denmark herself, and also starting her very own Scandinavian Kitchen last year.

You can read all about yesterday's Scandinavian cheese club and the cheeses Bronte brought along for us on her own blog here.

cheese off

We had our annual Cheese Off just before Christmas and it's only now we've recovered sufficiently to talk about it.

The Cheese Off is where the innocent Cheese Club all get together and taste the winning cheeses from the previous year.

1 room, 10 cheeses, 40 judges and a whole lot of wine. Think 12 Angry Men but with fairylights and chutney.

There were lots of strong contenders but it was the Epoisses that finally triumphed as the outright champion for 2007 on the night. So ripe for the fight was Napoleon's favourite cheese, that we had to serve it with a spoon.

Will J described it as tasting 'like a ghost train at the fair. Scary but sleazy.' His other cheese tasting notes included 'car crash cheese', 'light jazz brown' and 'similar to an autumn walk with deer.' Clearly a man who knows his cheese.

Rachel and Gurdeep now take on the reign of Cheese Queen and King for 2008. Unfortunately, Gurdeep was already on royal duties when this photograph was taken.

Big thanks to the lovely Ruth and Oliver at the Fine Cheese Company, Sara and Rhuraidh at Paxton and Whitfield, Deanna at Inverawe and La Fromagerie for supplying the cheese and to Kelly's dad for making sure we had oatcakes a plenty.

bonny cheese

Each month, we have Cheese Club, where we eat lots of cheese, vote on our favourites and then put them head to head in the Cheese Off in December. It's a bit like Pop Idol; just with cheese and minus all that blubbing.

This month's theme was Cheeses of Scotland, hosted by two of our favourite Scots, Kelly and Andrew D.

Pride of Scotland

As well as thistles, Proclaimers songs and the odd photo of Lorraine Kelly, there were authentic Scottish hats...

See-you-Jimmy hat fight

Some serious cheese lovers...

Go ben i thee skullery n git mi thi pickle (please can I have some chutney?)

And some excellent cheese.

The winning cheese was Inverawe Smoked Cheddar. It's the orange one, incase you were wondering.

Hats off to the McKerrow clan (a.k.a Kelly's mum and dad, Anne and David) for sending us the thistles and some of Scotland's finest oatcakes and shortbread.

We only have one more Cheese Club to go before the Grand Cheese Off 2007; watch this space.

don't forget to say 'cheese'

We're big fans of cheese here at innocent.  Personally my favourite cheese is of the music variety, but if pushed I'll go for Katy's White Lavender, shown above, which is made from sheep's milk, marinated in lavender flowers.  Yum.  For all you true cheese fanatics out there, however, it's time to take your love to another level.  Oh yes.  Carry your favoured variety of fromage to a famous place, or in some cases any place, take a picture and then show the world here.   Thanks to Charlotte B for the link.

a first for 2007

Ceri and Charlie hosted the first Cheese Club of 2007 today at lunchtime. It was a splendid affair with a good turn out. The theme was cheeses from Somerset, and one of the cheddars even came from a farm that Charlie used to work on.

cheese that

Last night we had the Cheese Off.  In case you're wondering, the Cheese Off is an annual meeting of the innocent Cheese Club, where we taste the 12 winning cheeses of the year.  Each cheese was expertly matched to a wine, beer or port, supplied by the amazing La Fromagerie on Moxon St.  The winning cheese of 2006 overall was Comte d'Estive.  Post cheese activities included Ben II playing some jamiroquai on the piano, Erin proving that she does have the voice of an angel, and Conor and Eloise's scarf dance.

turophiles

Turophiles = lovers of cheese, derived from 'tyro', which is greek for cheese, don't you know. Yesterday was the monthly meeting of cheese club here at Fruit Towers. Each month we choose a theme (past favourite - cheeses with funny coatings). After a round of tasting, we vote for our favourite, which gets shortlisted into the annual cheese-off in December. Yesterday's theme was Italian cheeses and we tried Bel Paese (rather like Dairylea), Taleggio, Torta Gorgonzola, Fontina, Pecorino Rosso and Dolcelatte. Taleggio won.