TASTE THE TERROIR ❘ BRETON CHEESE TASTE THE TERROIR


From France’s fi nest raw-milk cheeses and its fruitiest summer rosés to the most mouthwatering of food festivals, allow us to indulge your taste buds


Clockwise from this


image: A visit to Au Lait Cru is a must for Parisian cheese fanciers; cheeses from Chèvrerie de La Garenne; a Tomme de


brebis; (inset) goats grazing on Brittany pastures


RAW TALENT Patrick Ambrosio explores the renaissance of Brittany’s fromages fermiers


Cheese-lovers rejoice in the rich, creamy larder that is Brittany, with its abundance of milk and dairy products. But beyond a few semi-soft, washed-rind Trappist monastery cheeses, production nowadays is mostly carried out on a large-scale industrial level, with factories churning out primarily loaf and block cheeses, cream cheeses, spreads and the like. Enter Emmanuel Carbonne, who has made it his mission to change all that: his Parisian fromagerie, Au Lait Cru, is a living testament to the new dawn of Breton cheese. Born in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d’Armor, he has strong ties to the region. His fi rst experience with fromage was rather a chance one, consisting as it did of cutting cheeses for a Parisian department store. But it was enough to pique his interest and it soon led to his fi rst exposure to true farm cheese, via a stint at a Parisian open-air market for a small goat’s cheese producer based in Essonne. However, it was his tenure at the highly esteemed Neal’s Yard Dairy that proved to be the turning point. To label Neal’s Yard as just a


64 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Apr/May 2020


cheese shop would be to do it a disservice, for while it is indeed that, it is so much more. A veritable ‘house of all things cheese’, those who are fortunate enough to work here will receive an education that extends far beyond the act of simply selling cheese. Anything and everything to do with the care, storage, ageing, sourcing, marketing and even the science of cheese making and cheese refi ning is all part of the comprehensive education offered to staff.


NOBLE PROFESSION


This instilled a love of cheese and a sense of purpose in Carbonne, who says the intensity of the experience “forced him to develop a certain ethic” that would never allow a half-baked approach towards this noble profession. Neal’s Yard built its stellar global reputation in part by sourcing cheeses from small British family farms, acting as a broker of sorts in bringing their high-quality cheeses to a much larger audience than the individual farms themselves would have been able to do. Unsurprisingly, Emmanuel’s time there inspired


him to do the very same thing with the products from his beloved homeland of Brittany. Au Lait Cru offers a wide selection of Breton cheeses, produced by a new generation of staunchly individualistic cheese makers and hand-picked by Carbonne himself. For this new breed of dairy farmer, respect for the land and the animals is at least as important as the taste of the fi nished product. As the name of his shop suggests, Carbonne’s offering consists almost entirely of raw-milk fromages fermiers, chosen for both the integrity with which they are produced and their outstanding organoleptic qualities. The shop also stocks a well-curated selection of other French and imported favourites, as well as a varied selection of artisanal grocery items produced in the region, such as cider, cookies, honey, jams, nougat, infusions and gâteau Breton, to name but a few. Do make a point of visiting Au Lait Cru on your next visit to the City of Light. You will be treated to a one-stop tour-de-force of Brittany’s new artisan cheese and food scene. www.aulaitcru.com


IMAGES © EMMANUEL CARBONNE


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148