In few places on earth is cheese as celebrated and revered as it is in France, and one of the highlights is cheese from Pont l’Eveque.
Recently, the 27th Year of the Fete du Fromage took place in May in our local market town Pont l’Eveque, and the cheese eating surrender monkeys were out in force. They came from all over France. Pont l’Eveque is one of the 246 varieties of French cheese. “How can one possibly govern a people who make 246 cheeses?” General de Gaulle is supposed to have asked.
There were 11 Pont l’Eveque makers — nearly all farmers who still make the cheese down on the farm from unpasteurized milk — plus 80 other gourmet food makers.
There were producers of sausages and hams, wines and vinegars, spices and herbs; there was a chef demonstrating great recipes using Pont l’Eveque; folk dancing; accordion groups; cheese label swapping club (tyrosemiophiles club!); lunch tents and an old fashioned ‘hoe down’ dance on Saturday evening.
On Sunday morning, a huge parade of 14 medieval guilds or ‘confreries’, including the chevaliers de la Confrerie de Pont l’Eveque, led by the local band, wound through the town to the church door where the Trompes de Chasse (hunting horn players) magnificently attired in red hunting coat and black velvet riding hat trumpeted them a welcome.
The guilds are all dressed in elaborate costumes a la Henry Tudor and the Cheesemakers’ Guild hawks around a statue of St Uguzon, their patron saint.
Although the cheese has been known since 1500, the ‘medieval’ guild wasn’t formed until 1984 when Normandy began to realize it was a bit behind the times and had lost years of marketing opportunities.
The French have a long tradition of guilds, especially those which honour food and wine: Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, Confrerie du Veritable Andouille de Vire, Confrerie du Boudin Blanc, and the Chevaliers du Tastevin who celebrate in drunken bacchanalia the best of Burgundy wines in the Chateau du Clos Vougeot once a year.
Like Camembert, Pont l’Eveque is a soft paste cheese which has a pleasing light yellow crust with a rich creamy ‘pate’ inside. The smell is quite strong but the taste is rich and sweet with a slight pungency.
Our neighbour, Madame Spruytte was awarded a prize by the Confrerie de Pont l’Eveque again this year. She has a fine herd of gi-normous Norman cows with Kohl ringed eyes and huge ponderous udders full of rich yellow ready clotted cream.
She doesn’t pasteurize the milk and sells about 50,000 euros worth of cheese in the year. Brussels food regulators will soon catch up with her. I hope she never surrenders and here is one cheese eating monkey that agrees with her!
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Just read your piece on the Spruytte Creamery. I’ve also just read an article in “Culture” about Norman cheese makers that included the authors visit to the Spruytte’s (http://www.frenchcheeseclub.com/media/Culture_Spring_2010_Normandy.pdf). In two weeks I will be traveling in Normandy. I am an American “cheesemonger” and am planning visits to cheesemakers on this trip. The Spruytte’s sound like the perfect small, artisanal cheese makers. Can you tell me where they are located and how I might be able to arrange a visit to their Creamery? Thank you for your assistance!