report
France is considered the cheese nation par excellence. There are hundreds of varieties, 46 of them with the seal of protected origin. But the national cultural heritage is in crisis. The manufacturers disagree.
If you ask Parisians which cheese they eat most often, the answer is sobering – at least from a French perspective. “Mozzarella – it’s on the pizza, a classic in the restaurant. I eat Comté even more. Not always Brie,” replies the first. And the second says: “Mozzarella – as a starter with tomatoes. Brie belongs more on a cheese platter than dessert. I’m ambivalent.”
The statistics also say: France prefers mozzarella. And some rankings on the Internet no longer list a French variety among the top ten cheeses in the world.
Cheese with character
In Meaux in the hilly Marne Valley, a town of 50,000 people 50 kilometers east of Paris, saleswoman Lorine confidently also offers mozzarella. In the shop window of the Fromagerie de Meaux in the pedestrian zone there is only local cheese.
“Here I have the Brie de Meaux fermier – made only from raw milk from a farm, it has character,” enthuses Lorine. “Here Brie from a dairy, it’s milder. And the Black Brie – we let it dry in our cellar for a year. You can grate it, it’s like a cousin of Parmesan.”
Tourists from all over the world like to shop in Lorine’s cheese shop in Meaux.
Up to eight weeks of maturity
Competition? The President of the Brie Brotherhood, Thierry Bitschené, is not afraid of that. He welcomes you to the small Brie museum next to the Gothic cathedral of Meaux. As the Brie is, he says in a duet with his deputy Bernard: “Creamy, creamy, delicious.”
“The Brie loaves were laid on straw mats to drain. The piglets got what ran down. The Brie matures for six to eight weeks,” explains Bitschené in front of a replica ripening room. In addition to the sounds of a summer meadow, you can find out everything about the Brie in the museum: that you need 25 liters of milk for each one, that it weighs up to three kilos, is three centimeters thick and measures an impressive 37 centimeters in diameter. The cream-colored hat of the brotherhood looks like a Brie.
“No, we don’t have a real one on our head, but it’s sewn using a Brie shape as a model,” says Bitschené. Charlemagne is said to have tasted and praised the Brie as early as the eighth century. Later, the brie became a noble New Year’s gift at court, and Louis XVI. If he didn’t want to eat another piece of Brie, according to legend, he might have escaped from the guillotine.
Talleyrand’s diplomatic success thanks to Brie
The Brie has also saved France’s reputation. “At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the diplomat Talleyrand wanted to polish France’s image after the lost Napoleonic Wars,” says Bitschené. Talleyrand had the idea of holding a big banquet. “Each country should bring a cheese. I think there were 60 in the end. And Brie de Meaux was declared the king of cheeses and prince of desserts. We’re proud of that.”
Bitschené is a jovial but agile pensioner with silver hair and a bit of a beard. He wants to keep the legacy. He points to a photo from 1991. “These are our founding members: cheese makers, processors, restaurant owners, MPs, people from culture and tourism,” he says. “Back then, there was a lot of talk about the USA, which wanted to ban raw milk cheese. That’s when we founded the brotherhood, also to fight against the big corporations.”
“We don’t want any pasteurized Cheese”
Some AOP cheeses – AOP stands for “Appelation d’Origine Protégée”, roughly translated as “protected designation of origin” – are no longer made from raw milk. “We have a veto on that. We don’t want pasteurized cheese.” However, the only cheese factory working directly in Meaux already rents its premises from the dairy multinational Lactalis. Not Bitschené’s only concern.
He points to a map: “This is the Seine-et-Marne area. We only have 50 milk producers left. That’s why the area in which milk can be collected for Brie with a protected origin was expanded in 1980. The grass is yes the same everywhere.” After all, milk brings higher prices for AOP cheese.
Even in the heyday of the 19th century, the saying goes in the region: the cheese pays for the farm. During the pandemic, however, farmers had to throw away milk. The markets were closed. It was dry last year. The result: less milk, less cheese and less consumption because of the heat. Now energy costs have exploded.
“Not an easy year for the cheese manufacturers. We only have eight who produce 7,500 tons of Brie a year,” says Bitschené. “The season before last we grew by nine percent, last year by two, and this year there will probably be zero growth. Complicated by the crisis.”
Real Brie from Meaux bears the AOP seal for the protected designation of origin – as do a total of 46 French cheeses.
Struggling with the EU requirements
EU requirements and cheese substitutes are also a thorn in the side of the Brie President. “We don’t like it. If everyone had been given real milk, allergies and intolerances would certainly not have been so widespread,” says Bitschené. “And sometimes the methane is enough. France and Germany respect the environment quite well. If fewer cows are to be kept now – that’s annoying.”
Bitschené used to be responsible for communication in a large corporation. He is confident: the Brie will still exist in its market niche, ten times smaller than that of the Comté – thanks to its quality. “We are evolving, we go with the fashion,” he says. They used to make brie with truffles for Easter or Christmas, but now it’s available all year round. “And we make one with our traditional mustard. More and more young people come to fairs, markets and festivals and their eyes sparkle when they taste a piece of raw milk Brie.”
“France – that means gastronomy”
In the meantime, the saleswoman Lorine has carefully wrapped a strip of each of her six types of Brie. 9.21 euros: a bargain for so much AOP cheese. She is certain: “France – that means gastronomy. I think all foreigners will continue to taste our varieties, not just Germans. Today I had Dutch people here. Other customers send our Brie to Canada or Brazil.”
The large market hall in Meaux – formerly the hub of the Brie trade – is to be renovated soon. And in October, the brotherhood is celebrating its future-proof birthday – with a cheese competition and a 100-metre-long Brie. The motto: “Brie Happy!”