|
|
||||
|
THE TIMES SATURDAY JANUARY 11
|
||||
|
A big Cheese in Barcelona
|
||||
| Now here's a funny thing the only
shop in the whole of Spain that devotes itself solely to that country's
farmhouse cheeses is run and owned by a Scotswoman. Katherine McLaughlin,
once of Kirkcaldy and as doughty as you might imagine, is an acknowledged
expert on Spanish cheese, and her shop is in a former butter factory in
a tiny street in the centre of Barcelona. "I decided I wanted to learn about cheese about seven years ago," McLaughlin, 48 says. "I was living near Inverness at the time, managing a small place producing pâté. I went to Neals Yard Dairy in London and asked how I might learn. They suggested I contact Iain Mellis in Edinburgh." Mellis who has four shops and a maturing yard, took her on. After a while she started to become interested in Spain and went to Barcelona. There, she set about learning Spanish and Catalan and doing secretarial work. Then Mellis called and said "Can you send me some Spanish cheese?" Traveling by bus -- "I didn't have a car" -- McLaughlin spent a year sourcing and buying cheese, contacting authors and specialists to pick their brains and beg introductions, "I traveled a lot with Jose Luis Martin. He was a goat herdsman in Extremadura (the central western region of Spain that bor- |
There's a piece of the Highlands in the heart of Spain. Rohab Daft meets Katherine McLaughlin |
cheese. It's very rich and the thistle
give it a slightly bitter taste. It's a fantastic cheese but a difficult
one to sell." Next there is a sliver of Arzua-Ulloa, a young, relatively
soft cow's cheese from Galicia ("Like a cheddar, but softer"). There is a Manchego, too. But this one, unlike many sold in the UK, really tastes of something. "It's got to be unpasteurised. Manchego is a Denominación de Orgen cheese (made from the milk of Manchego sheep) but it can be made from pasteurised or unpasteurised cheese. The quality is all tangy and a touch nutty. McLaughlin's enthusiasm is something that helped her hugely when she came to open the shop. That and a stroke of luck. After deciding on the then vacant premises, it took her a full year of pestering the owner to arrange a meeting about taking on the lease. "He was retired," she says. "But he was writing a thesis about milk. I think he only let me have it because I wanted to open a real cheese shop." Formatgeria La Seu, Carrer Dagueria 16 Barri Gotic Barcelona 00 34 98 412 65 48 Open 10am - 3pm and 5pm - 8pm Tues - Sat The shop offers cheese courses but only in Spanish |
||
| ders Portugal for 18 years. Now he's a cheese
technician" Another mentor was Ramón Badia Gutierrez, also a
traveling cheese technician. "I spent three weeks with one cheesemaker in Granada," she says, "He had his own goats and he was off his head. I was covered in fleas for the duration." One problem she encountered after finding a cheese she wanted, was actually managing to buy it. "There's a strong local demand for cheeses and production is very limited. Also, I never bartered. Iain said that if I knocked the price down they wouldn't produce the cheese that we wanted" -- important when you consider that cheese makers in Spain demand payment when you place your order not when they deliver. For her own shop, which she opened three years ago, she also follows a strict buying policy. "I prefer unpasteurised cheese and I prefer the producer to have his own herds. I always visit and I always taste. I like to see the whole process." In France fermer (farmhouse cheese) cheese and astisan cheese are, by |
law, different products as the former have to be made with the cheesemaker's own milk. The makers of artisan cheese can buy in milk from anywhere they wish. No such distinction exists for Spain's 60-odd types of cheese. When McLaughlin says she sells only "farmhouse" cheese she is using her own description. "I sell cheese that | is made in small quantities from small independent
producers." Another big difference between Spanish and French cheese is the maturation period that must be applied to Spanish cheese made from unpasteurised milk - at least 60 days."The result is harder, more mature cheese. You don't get any cheeky little bries," she says. At any given time McLaughlin stocks around 25 cheeses. At present she has Pato Mulo (Mule's Foot), a rounded brick of a cheese from León in the mid north-west ("A strange one. Quite delicate for a sheep's cheese").. And then there is Pasiego, a pasteurised cow's cheese from Cantabria, in the far north. It comes in small discs and is soft and a bit sticky, with slightly bitter after taste. Also from Cantabrai comes Cobreces, made by Trappist monks, soft and mellow. Her Customers are keen to try new cheeses, "though I don't want to seem like a know-it-all," says a genuinely modest McLaughlin. She offers a taste of Torta de la Serena, an unpasteurised sheep's cheese from Extremadura. "They use thistle heads to make this |
||
|
|
||||
|
THE FIFE FREE PRESS JUNE 13, 2003
|
||||
|
Say cheese ...
Katherine
|
||||
|
makes her
mark in Barcelona
From St Andrew high to
success in Spanish City |
||||
|
WHAT does a Spanish
The answer is Katherinecheese shop situated in the heart of Barcelona have in common with Kirkcaldy? McLaughlin - born and bred in the Lang Toun and now run- ing a successful cheese shop in the Catalan city. The former St Andrews High pupil owns Formatgeria La Seu, ironically the only cheese shop in Spain devoted solely to the coun try's own farmhouse cheeses. However, Katherin hasn't for got her roots and every December 27 she along with family and friends from the Kingdom organ- a dance called the Guid Neebors Club. She said: "Scotland is always present in the little things I do around the business and I always try to let people know that I'm from Kirkcaldy... even though they don't know where it is!" . Katherine McLaughlin was born in Forth Park Hospital on December 13, 1954 and spent most of her youth in Links Street with her parents, brother and sister. She added: "I still keep very strong ties with the Links and have references fro Kirkcaldy in |
MATTHEW ELDER
Reporter
ffpnews@fireonline.co.uk
|
"I was lucky enough to find
an old butter making factory which had been closed for 18 years and after a year o looking for esti- mates and the renovation work, we finally opened in January 2000." Katherine sells between 20 and 25 Spanish farmhouse cheeses, olive oil and a selection of wines at Formatgeria La Seu. Her main customers are locals and tourists who buy cheese either for themselves or to take home as presents. She continued "My business aims to grow but I don't want an empire, I just want to concentrate on improving my cheese as well as introducing new products like chutneys and biscuits." "The cheese I have chosen I snot very well-known even to the locals so I am delighted at the confidence they have shown in me and their loyalty over the last three years." "I couldn't have done this with out the help of my brother and sis ter who helped make my dream come true." this summer will find Katherine's shop situated in a quiet lane on Calle Dagueria near the Old Town Hall.
|
||
| Old family friends." After leaving Kirkcaldy as a 19- year to to study in Edinburgh, Katherine moved to Paris to work before returning to Scotland at the age of 28. She then opened a restaurant in Edinburgh call Nomads but sold the lease after on;y two years. "I wondered what to do next," Katherine said. "My brother and sister were living in Barcelona so I decided to go and spend some time there. "It was here, seven years ago, that I decided on my drastic career move...cheese." Kathine contacted Edinburgh cheese manager Iain Mellis, who then asked Katherine to supply Spanish farmhouse cheeses for his shop. "I started visiting cheese fairs, sold cheese and visited loads of cheese makers as well as making it myself," she recalled. "I spent roughly three or four years working for Iain before finally opening my own shop in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. |
||||