BLACKBOOK THE HEAD UNEXPECTED HERE Plateau de Fromage de Liu Yang – a selection of goat’s cheese, camembert and fromage frais; below: the cheesemaker himself Say Cheese! A Beijing artisan is changing Chinese tastes one bite at a time with his freshly made French-style fromages. By Mark Graham L iu Yang’s transformation into a cheesemaker started precisely where you would expect: France. An ambitious young Chinese student enrolled in a business course, he developed a taste for the pungent product immediately, and soon a farmer neighbour was schooling him in the rudiments of making soft, unpasteurised cheese. On returning to China, Liu began experimenting with different varieties, road-testing the results on members of the French community and more adventurous locals, who are not generally known as cheese lovers. Today, his wares are received enthusiastically by local gourmands, who previously had to rely on imports, and his brainchild, the aptly named Le Fromager de Pekin, produces some 20 different styles, including a newly introduced goat’s cheese, from a factory on the outskirts of the capital city. And it’s not just fromagophiles who come calling for, among others, varieties like Beijing Grey, which is similar in taste and texture to camembert. Nowadays, in addition to his regular clientele, cosmopolitan dining establishments are also keen to include Le Fromager de Pekin products on their cheeseboards. Among the hot spots where it can be sampled are Capital M restaurant, Brasserie Flo and Temple Restaurant Beijing, along with in-house eateries at Raffles, Four Seasons, EAST Beijing and the Orchid hotel. “Customers are very interested to taste local cheese that is fresh and is an artisanal product,” says Liu, who produces over 400kg of cheese monthly, including batches of ricotta and soft cheese infused with herbs and tomato. “When people first try the cheese they think it is from France, and when they discover it is made in Beijing, by a Chinese guy, they are very surprised. They don’t think Chinese eat cheese, let alone know how to make it.” Liu can be seen regularly at farmers’ markets and food exhibitions around the city meeting customers, both old and new. One such gathering proved to be a life-changer: one of his American clients later became his wife and the couple now have a three-yearold son, William. “When we started, the customers were 95 per cent foreign people,” he says. “But now it is half and half. In the future I want to do more work in cheese culture and have cheese lessons and cheese-tasting lessons and degustation of cheese and bread, cheese and wine, and cheese and jam.” His enthusiasm is infectious – for cheese-lovers and those new to the delicacy alike. lefromagerdepekin.com PHOTOS LIONEL DERIMAIS 32 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
