The Cheese Web

04/01/2026

Hand-selected. Perfectly paired. Unforgettable. 🧀
This is how cheese tasting is meant to be done. Want to be a pro? Follow for stories of cheese 🧀

04/12/2025

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Ever Wondered How much a Cow eats and drinks?
The average cow weighs in at a whopping 600kg [the equivalent of 7-8 people!!] and munches her way steadily through roughly 55kg of fodder, a mix of pasture, silage and hay depending on the season and is equivalent to around 2-3% of their body weight. So, NZ farmers allow 1 to 2 acres (or Image to Imagehectares) of land per cow to sustain their massive appetite. BUT the amount of water they consume is huge.

A lactating cow drinks around 110-190 litres per day, to produce an average of 28 litres per day over a period of 10 months. And when it’s hot they drink even more! Hence the main dairy farming regions in NZ are in the wetter parts like Waikato, Southland and Taranaki while Canterbury has become a major dairy region due to the sophisticated irrigation systems. And it’s also why planting trees, rather than a scorched earth policy, is better for all!

YES, cows can get sunburned! Especially lightly coloured or white areas of the skin, like the muzzle, teats, or patches of skin without much pigment which leading to painful inflammation, swelling, and peeling.

20/11/2025

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🧀 Parmigiano Reggiano 🧀
When you taste Parmesan, or to be more correct Parmigiano Reggiano, you ate tasting a piece of Italian geology, culinary and cultural history. From the recipe, barely changed from the 12th century, to where the milk comes from, is rigidly controlled by the Consortium. Each cheese is graded and uniquely tattooed with markings on the rind to indicate when, where and who made it.
So, wherever you buy your Parmesan as long as it comes from Italy, its quality, authenticity and taste is guaranteed because its very essence, like wine , comes from the unique terroir. Everything else is but a poor copy that can never hope to replica these grand dames of the cheese world.
Spring cheeses are soft, pale yellow with a delicate flavour and herbal scents attributed to the wildflowers and new grass the cattle graze on. Summer cheeses are richer, more savoury and more intense while those made in winter when the cattle are fed mostly hay which must be cut from the same region.
Brittle and crumbly not plastic or supple it should be sweet and fruity like fresh pineapple with more savoury notes as it ages. It should never be bitter, aggressively strong or smell acrid. These are copies and not worthy of the name.
cheese

17/11/2025

🧀Parmigiano Reggiano 🧀
When you taste Parmesan, or to be more correct Parmigiano Reggiano, you ate tasting a piece of Italian geology, culinary and cultural history. From the recipe, barely changed from the 12th century, to where the milk comes from, is rigidly controlled by the Consortium. Each cheese is graded and uniquely tattooed with markings on the rind to indicate when, where and who made it.
So, wherever you buy your Parmesan as long as it comes from Italy, its quality, authenticity and taste is guaranteed because its very essence, like wine , comes from the unique terroir. Everything else is but a poor copy that can never hope to replica these grand dames of the cheese world.
Spring cheeses are soft, pale yellow with a delicate flavour and herbal scents attributed to the wildflowers and new grass the cattle graze on. Summer cheeses are richer, more savoury and more intense while those made in winter when the cattle are fed mostly hay which must be cut from the same region.
Brittle and crumbly not plastic or supple it should be sweet and fruity like fresh pineapple with more savoury notes as it ages. It should never be bitter, aggressively strong or smell acrid. These are copies and not worthy of the name.

cheese

17/11/2025

Blue Monkey
Strong blue [6/7 intensity!] with a mass of blue streaks that have a fiery punch. Perfect for the blue cheese lover made near Tauranga by Chris & Jill Whalley at Mt Eliza Cheese. They also make an authentic [they use the right recipe] raw milk Cheddar and a deep orange, nutty Red Leicester

Hohepa Blue
Wonderful buttery texture and mellow spice tang with a sea breeze salty finish. Made from the milk of Ayrshire cows that graze in the hills behind Napier on a cornucopia of wildflowers, herbs and grasses - the reason all Hohepa cheeses have such a complexity of flavour

Mahoe Blue
Best known for their award-winning Gouda, the team at Mahoe near Kerikeri also make what has to be one of NZ best blue. Buttery, melt in the mouth, spicy yet mellow with hints of dark cocoa on the finish.

11/09/2025

11/09/2025

Where better to spend my last evening in London than a walk around Holland Park

26/08/2025

Big cheese news! 🧀✨
I’m thrilled (and still pinching myself!) to share that I’ve been featured in lonely planets article on Hawke’s Bay listed as number 5 of the world’s best food cities 🍇🍷

🔗 https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/best-food-cities

From dreaming up the British and New Zealand Cheese Awards to creating a cheese classification and judging cheese from Ireland to Indiana it’s been quite the journey — always fuelled by passion (and plenty of cheese).

It means the world to see Hawke’s Bay recognised for its incredible food scene — and to know I’ve played a small part in putting it on the global foodie map.

Come have a peek at The Cheese Web for more cheesy tales, grab some friends and join me on a foodie tour of Hawke’s Bay’s quirkiest people and places and a look behind the rind! 🧀🌿✨

06/08/2025

A Whiskey & Scottish Cheese Experience! 🥃

An evening of combinations that ranged from the truly spectacular, to the really nasty!!

Both elements owe their characters to their environment and the skill of the maker.

Both can be subtle or outspoken.

Neither deserve to be overshadowed when they get together.

So, the matches at Monday night’s tasting at the quirky Bread & Butter Cafe in Anstruther provoked some mixed and very surprised reactions. Most were surprised at how the Kingsbarns Distillery whisky Balcomie, seeped in oloroso sherry barrels, went with most cheeses. While the smoky, peaty, Coaltown was often overshadowed by the cheese.

It was a lot of fun! If you want to know what did and didn’t work, you’ll have to email me 📧 [email protected]

🧀 The Cheeses & the Cheesemakers


the farmhouse (cheddar) & Smoked Anster



Clava Brie & Connage Vintage Gouda



Blackmount Pyramid



Rainton Tomme



Skinny Crowdie, Minger & Blue Murder



Campketown Loch
Howgate Blue


Wee Comrie


Huge thanks to James for coming all the way from Buckinghamshire ,
the .fife owners from Dunfermline and especially Jane & the team at St Andrew’s Cheese and Kingsbarns Distillery for giving me an excuse to visit this stunning part of the world.

21/06/2025

So many cheeses so little time ! These 2 shops in Paris inspired me to open a cheese shop in London

21/06/2025

While I enjoy my excellent salad du jour the men beside me are sharing p**n on their phones! I may not speak French but I definitely understand body language! 🤣🙄😊

21/06/2025