Juliet Harbutt | |
|---|---|
| Born | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Other names | Master of Cheese [1] |
| Occupation(s) | Cheese expert: author, educator, judge, campaigner, consultant, trainer and speaker |
| Website | www.thecheeseweb.com |
Juliet Harbutt is a New Zealand cheese expert. [2] She is an author, judge, consultant, campaigner, speaker, educator and tour guide. She acted as consultant to Prince Charles and Alex James when they were developing their own cheeses. [3] In the 1990s she worked with Tesco in devising their cheese classification system. [4] In 2000 she created The Great British Cheese Festival.
In the 1970s Harbutt opened a café deli, The Parson’s Nose in Wellington, New Zealand. In 1983, while travelling around Europe, she attended cookery classes in Paris, [5] where she discovered a passion for cheese, saying it was “a revelation to someone who had grown up with block cheddar.” [6] She also visited Steven Spurrier’s wine shop Les Caves de la Madeleine. [7]
After selling The Parson’s Nose she moved to England in 1983, [8] where she co-founded Jeroboams – the Wine and Cheese Shop, in South Kensington, which was “largely responsible for introducing London to a whole new cheese concept.” After realising that “selling cheese was not enough” she sold the company to her partner in 1991, moved to the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire, where she ran cheese-related masterclasses and events and began to publish books. [9]
She acted as a cheese consultant for clients that included Tesco, Harrods and Marks & Spencer. [10] [11] She has judged cheese competitions in Switzerland, France and America. [12] She is a member of the Guild des Fromagers - Confrerie de Saint-Uguzon and Chevaliers de Tastefromage. [13] In 1992 she was given the title Confrerie des Chevaliers du Taste-Fromage de France. [14] She has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. [15] She has helped many people design and launch their own cheeses, including the then Prince Charles and her Cotswolds neighbour, Alex James. [16] [17]
Highlights include:
In 2016, after 35 years in England she moved to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand [27] where she established Hunter Gatherer Tours. [28]
Harbutt made two cheeses with Alex James: Little Wallop (2007) and Farleigh Wallop (2009), [29] the latter won the Best Goat’s Cheese award at the 2009 British Cheese Awards. [30]
She created the Simply the Best range, a selection of award-winning artisanal English cheeses, including Creamy Lancashire, Smoked Lyburn and Double Gloucester. [31]
She has written for magazines, including Bon Appétit (USA), Cheese Buyer Magazine, [33] Speciality Food, [34] Dish.co.nz, [35] and NZ House and Garden. [36]
Harbutt has made regular radio appearances. She has also appeared on BBC 1's Eat Your Words (1996), [37] Ready Steady Cook , Saturday Kitchen , The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain (2009), Come Dine with Me (winner) (2009) [38] [39] and BBC 4's The Food Programme - A Life Through Food (2015). [40]
Eat Up! The Best British Cooking Is Not Dead, It’s Just Hiding (2010) Pub. Kyle Cathie
Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: Blue, which has Penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste, and White, which does not. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin (PDO) by the European Commission, requiring that only such cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire may be called Stilton. The cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton, now in Cambridgeshire, where it has long been sold, but cannot be made because it is not in one of the three permitted counties.
Caerphilly is a hard, crumbly white cheese that originated in the area around the town of Caerphilly, Wales. It is thought to have been created to provide food for the local coal miners. The Caerphilly of that period had a greater moisture content, and was made in local farms. At the start of the 20th century, competition for milk in the local area saw production decline, and Caerphilly production was gradually relocated to England.
Steven Alexander James, FRSA is an English musician, best known as the bassist of the rock band Blur. He has also played with the bands Fat Les, Me Me Me, WigWam and Bad Lieutenant.
Gloucester is a traditional, semi-hard cheese which has been made in Gloucestershire, England, since the 16th century. There are two varieties of the cheese, Single and Double; both are traditionally made from milk from Gloucester cattle. Both types have a natural rind and a hard texture, but Single Gloucester is more crumbly, lighter in texture and lower in fat. Double Gloucester is allowed to age for longer periods than Single, and it has a stronger and more savoury flavour. It is also slightly firmer. The flower known as lady's bedstraw was responsible for the distinctively yellow colour of Double Gloucester cheese.
Lincolnshire Poacher is a hard unpasteurised cow's milk cheese that is generally of a cylindrical shape with a rind resembling granite in appearance. It is made at Ulceby Grange Farm in Alford, Lincolnshire, by craft cheesemaker Richard Tagg. The cheese is matured for between 14 and 24 months, depending on when the milk was collected.
Uniq plc was a British food manufacturer. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, it was taken over by Irish foods conglomerate Greencore in 2011.
Neal's Yard Dairy is a London artisanal cheese retailer, wholesaler and (formerly) cheesemaker in London, which was founded by Nicholas Saunders and Randolph Hodgson in 1979. It has been described as "London's foremost cheese store." As of 2020 the company has three shops and a cheese store in London.
The Great British Cheese Festival, is a festival held in Wales on the last weekend of every September.
Maribo is a Danish semi-hard cheese made from cow's milk. Named after the town of Maribo on the island of Lolland, it has a firm, dry interior; a creamy texture; and many small, irregular holes. It has a pale tan rind covered in yellow wax. Its flavour is tangy, and it is sometimes seasoned with caraway seeds.
Glyde Farm Produce was set up in 1996 by Peter Thomas who spent the next several years researching the market in Ireland for suitable dairy products. Peter and Anita Thomas started making Bellingham Blue cheese at their family farm at Mansfieldtown in County Louth, Ireland, in 2000.
The American Cheese Society (ACS) is a non-profit trade group for the American cheese industry that was founded in 1983.
Synlait Milk Ltd. is a New Zealand dairy processor selling dairy and plant-based nutritional products, ingredients and powders to multinational customers worldwide. It is headquartered in Dunsandel, Canterbury, with additional manufacturing sites in Auckland and Pokeno, a Research and Development Centre in Palmerston North and offices in Beijing and in Shanghai. The company manufactures milk powders and foodservice products such as infant formula, adult and early life nutrition products, ingredients such as lactoferrin and foodservice products such as UHT cream.
Duddleswell is a type of cheese made in England.
Suffolk Gold cheese is a semi-soft cheese prepared from the pasteurised cow's milk of Guernsey cattle. Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses, a family-operated company located in Creeting St Mary, Suffolk, England, produces the cheese. The dairy was established in 2004.
Beenleigh Blue is a thin-rinded, unpressed soft blue cheese made from pasteurised ewe's milk and vegetarian rennet produced by the Ticklemore Cheese Company in Ashprington, Devon, England. The cheese originated in the 1980s with a limited line by Robin and Sari Congdon, and thereafter became available to consumers throughout the year.
Oxford Blue is a variety and brand of blue cheese produced in Burford, Oxfordshire, England in 1995 by French baron Robert Pouget in the tradition of Stilton cheese but with a creamier consistency especially when the cheese was allowed to mature. It is a soft and creamy cheese that has tangy, aromatic and spicy qualities. By 2013, around five tonnes were produced monthly.
Shahina Waseem is a world champion competitive chilli eater from Uxbridge, Middlesex. As at November 2023, she had an unbeaten streak consisting of 97 consecutive wins in chilli eating competitions in the UK, USA and Belgium. She ranks second in the Official League of Fire (LOF) world ranking, which recognises “the best of the best chilli heads on the planet”.
