The British cheese expert given a French culinary crown
It’s not every day a Briton receives a French knighthood, and it’s certainly not commonplace for the award to come for services to cheese.
But that’s exactly what happened this week when Tracey Colley, founding director of the Academy of Cheese, was honoured by the minister of agriculture and food sovereignty of France, receiving a Chevalier in the Ordre du Mérite Agricole.
At Tuesday’s ceremony at the French embassy in Kensington, Colley accepted the honour for her 20-year career in the cheese industry, her tireless efforts to support cheesemakers, champion cheese, and nurture future generations. She became one of the first professionals in the British cheese industry to receive the prestigious title, joining French-born, UK-based Christophe Sire, general manager of Savencia Fromage & Dairy UK.
The likes of Louis Pasteur, Jacques Chirac and Elizabeth David have received the same honour. “It’s a bit surreal,” Colley told The Telegraph, adding that while the cheese industry was great at recognising cheesemakers, through events like the World Cheese Awards, fewer working behind the scenes were heralded.
Shropshire-born Colley studied textiles in the 1980s, and says there are similarities with cheese making: turning a raw material into “something amazing”, and attracting “creative” and “flamboyant” people. At university, she worked at a cottage cheese factory.
But it was 20 years ago that Colley began dedicating her life to cheese, launching a deli in Ludlow – a food-lovers’ paradise with three Michelin-starred restaurants, all of which her shop supplied. She championed local cheeses at a time when celebrity chefs like Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver were beginning to do so publicly. “I very much learnt on the job,” says Colley.
The deli won several awards, but after six years Colley sold the business and took on a role at Harvey & Brockless, a food producer and distributor. She looked after key accounts, organised trade show exhibitions and worked across the cheese spectrum, “from sliced mozzarella up to tiny little White Lake goat’s cheese”.
In 2017, Colley became a founding director of the Academy of Cheese. The brainchild of Mary Quicke, a Devon-based cheddar producer, the Academy promotes the British cheese industry, with a heavy emphasis on fostering the next generation of cheesemongers and producers. Its three-level course, similar to the global wine qualifications provided by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, has trained over 6,000 people in 91 countries. In 2020, Colley led the Academy’s response to the pandemic, which hit artisan cheese hard, putting on an online festival, the British Cheese Weekender, within weeks of the first lockdown. King Charles, then Prince of Wales, even contributed a recipe for cheesy baked eggs.
Training the next generation of cheese experts is one of Colley’s passions, whether through the Academy’s annual Young Cheesemonger of the Year competition or its new collaboration with the Michael Caines Academy in Exeter, which trains chefs and hospitality students. After the first session earlier this month, “we got thank you notes from all of them, they had no idea cheese had so much depth, how much they can do with cheese”, says Colley.
The award highlights how the French are increasingly respecting British gastronomy, and our cheese is no outlier. Colley says this year a French contingent is visiting to learn about the Academy’s Affineur of the Year award, which tests cheesemongers’ skills at caring for, ripening and ageing cheese. The French Fédération des Fromagers is also looking at how Britain does things, she adds. “In France, they are so restricted by their PDOs [protected designation of origin] and PGIs [protected geographical indication]. The traditional cheesemakers are absolutely fantastic. But the young generation coming in have seen the creativity we’ve got, they’re looking at what we’re doing.”
According to Colley, “the award is a fantastic accolade for the cheese industry, recognising the farms and animals producing great milk, the cheesemakers creating wonderful cheeses and to those promoting and selling them. I am determined to inspire and encourage new generations to understand and appreciate cheese.”
For Tracey, it will help put British cheese “on the map. It’s made people stand up and recognise the hard work. It would be lovely for more cheese people to be recognised over the coming years.”
Tracey Colley’s favourite British cheeses
Kirkham’s Lancashire is a splendid British territorial cheese, made by Graham Kirkham using unpasteurised cow’s milk. For me it has the perfect balance of buttery, lemon and savoury flavours.
I love blue cheeses; Pevensey Blue is a new kid on the block made by Hazel and Martin Tkalez in East Sussex using pasteurised cow’s milk, it has a smooth and creamy melt-in-the-mouth texture, nutty sweetness and finishes with a sharp blue bite.
My go-to blue is always Shropshire Blue because it adds colour and spice to the cheese board. I buy it from Colston Bassett Dairy when it’s available as they hand ladle each batch, otherwise from Cropwell Bishop or Long Clawson. Its vibrant orange colour, fudgy texture and peppery tang are a delight.
Having now moved to Norfolk – and in close proximity to Fen Farm Dairy – their now world-famous Baron Bigod is high on my list of favourites too. It is made from the milk of their beautiful Montbéliarde cows, and its bloomy white rind invites you in to a soft creamy paste with buttery, brassica and mineral flavours.
