Top cheeses from Australia
Out of the 2500 entries in the 2011 Guild of Fine Food World Cheese Awards, two of the gold medals went to the Australian specialty cheese manufacturer, Jindi. This backs up the four medals from the 2009 Awards.
Jindi is Australia’s largest privately owned Cheese manufacturer and is situated in Gippsland in Victoria.
The company submitted four cheeses in this year’s award and two of them took home the gold medal for their category.
The ‘Fire Engine Red” (a washed rind cheese) was the gold medal winner in the ‘Pont L’Eveque, Livarot’ category – which it also took out in 2009.
The ‘Heritage Blue’ was also the gold medal winner in that category.
In the 2011, there were 200 judges from 34 countries, making the awarding of these gold medals to the Jindi Cheeses truly world class recognition.
Franck Beaurain , the Jindi CEO and Head Cheesemaker, said, “This shows that Australian cheeses can be competitive on the world stage, especially given the range of cheeses we were competing against.”
With this being the festive season; the following are some hints from the Jindi website (http://www.jindi.com.au) for the eating and purchasing of cheese;
- Buy what you require for a single use and eat it in its entirety
- Where possible, store white and blue mould cheese in its original packaging. Otherwise use foil or cling wrap
- Take cheese out of fridge an hour before serving – in summer this can be reduced to 20 minutes
- Eating cheese closer to the best before date will increase the sharpness of its flavour
- As in France, cheese is best eaten as a finale to a meal rather than an appetiser
- Soft cheeses are best served on crusty breads
- Wine and cheese should be matched by similarities – the stronger the cheese, the heavier the wine