Gerard Poulard studied herbal botanics for half a decade to deepen his understanding of cow's milk and tracing its origins.
We have heard you are able to identify the type of cow that produced milk for any cheese, and also whether it’s been made from sheep or goat milk. How do you do that? Was there any training involved?
The Agriculture Minister in France defined a particular species of cow which will give a particular kind of milk to produce cheese — the Beaufort-type. The variety of milk depends on the grass and the seasons of the year. All these milk varieties will give a different selection that you can find in France, like the summer and winter cheese. In the beginning there were no training methods, so I studied Herbal Botanics for five years just to help me identify and understand the feeling of the cow’s milk, and trace the origin of the animal, region, producer and maturing of the cheese. Nowadays, knowledge and information has been spread and implemented in different hotel schools.
What are the differences between cheeses made with different kinds of milk?
| Advertisement |
The main difference with which to identify the milk of cows, sheep and goats is that both sheep and goats always produce cheese which is white in colour, while cow’s milk produces yellow colour shades. All grass that cows eat contains carotene which creates the brownish colour of the cheese.
Are there any trends in the cheese sector you have seen over the last year, or you think are upcoming? What are these?
There are no real trends in cheese. Trends depend on the season; for example, in spring time, you will want to eat more goat and sheep cheese. But I can say that people do prefer to eat these, as cow’s milk produces more fats in comparison.
Do you have any favourite cheese varieties?
As someone passionate about cheese, I don’t have any favourites. It depends on the season of the year and sometimes it depends on my mood ... for example, in the morning, you will not eat the same kind of cheese you will eat in the evening.
How did you get so passionate about this?
It started when I was working as a head waiter at Montparnasse 25 in Le Meridien Paris when the GM asked me what we could do to improve the revenue. I suggested hosting a cheese tasting like what we were doing with wine. I got the go-ahead from the GM and started to present around 50 cheese varieties and discussed the history of each one. It was successful and because of that I increased the variety to 150 cheeses. I was buying cheese from the farmer and maturing it all by myself. I started loving it without noticing that I was already addicted. For me, cheese was not work anymore — instead, it became a passion.
What is the most important thing to consider when pairing wine and cheese?
I will recommend a dry white wine with goat cheese, red wine with cow cheese and sweet wine or hot wine with blue cheese. We are not only pairing cheese with wines but pears, grapes, apples and tomatoes as well. And I would not recommend walnuts unless paired with pasteurised cheese which has no taste.
Is there anything in the F&B industry which has inspired you?
Yes — La Maison Androvet which is the first cheese restaurant in Paris.
Do you have any tips for people who want to enter the F&B industry?
My advice is to put your passion in what you are doing, in what you want to pursue and always think positive — believe that all the actions or things that you will do with hard work take you in a good direction.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
