In the decade or so that I’ve been lucky enough to write and edit magazines, books and articles for Borough Market, I’ve spent a lot of time hanging around some of the best produce you’ll find anywhere in the country: meat, fish, spices, oils, olives, bread, charcuterie. But for all that abundance of culinary riches, if I’m pressed to identify what I love most about Borough, I don’t have to think too hard. It’s the cheese.
Nowhere else on the planet have I seen such a concentration of supremely good cheeses. Cheese created in small quantities by obsessive makers who know far too much about pasture, cows and microbes. Cheese that reflects the place it came from and the time it was made. Because of the interplay of dozens of variables, its character will shift in endlessly subtle ways. The seasons unfold, the weather fluctuates. The lushness of the grass changes, as do the flowers and seeds in the pasture, the stage of life of the cows, the microorganisms in the air of the dairy, the touch and personality of the cheesemakers. Every piece is different, and every piece is constantly evolving, even after you’ve bought it. This kind of cheese is a living thing with personality. Industrial cheese is, by contrast, a waxwork.
