Saint George’s Week at Leadenhall Market

April 21, 2009 by Moorgate Mercurius

Cheese at Leadenhall Market On Saturday I was partying with the Dutch but as this week is Saint George’s Week and Leadenhall Market is celebrating by showing off the best in English wine, ale and food so I popped along to the combined shop and cafe “Cheese”, who are marking the week by highlighting the great British cheeses that they have available such as the gloriously named Stinking Bishop and Isle of Wight Blue, to name but two. I suspect I’ve been one of many people who’ve lingered under the misapprehension that cheese basically comes in two varieties, namely the edible variety that comes on pizzas and burgers or the smelly variety which was created purely to challenge the gag reflex of young children.

I spoke to the immensely affable and approachable owner and manager Sue Cloke who dispelled that particular myth with a fabulous range of artisan cheeses and was able to tempt me to one of their upcoming events,
“informal master classes, where Sue will guide the student through the tastes and textures of selected cheeses and discover how cheese is made, their characteristics and suggested uses in cooking and entertaining.

Sue certainly knows her stuff having been at the helm in the cheese department of the well known Harvey Nichols store and prior to that was at Leathams Larder and Jermyn Street cheese emporium Paxton and Whitfield so if you’re either a cheese connoisseur looking for a knowledgeable cafe/retailer in the City or a cheese newbie who wants to leave the beginners pool of cheddar and mozzarella then I can thoroughly recommend “Cheese” to you. Tempted beyond endurance I bought a selection of cheeses, and accessories, to start me off on the road from cheese-novice to cheese-ninja!

Other events in the Market this week include the variously bearded bohemians who make up the lunchtime folk musicians and apparently on Thursday beloved London Mayor BoJo will be making an appearance at some point as part of his admirable display of support for Saint George’s Day events in London although it’s pretty unlikely that he was English and it’s quite possible he didn’t set foot in England at all. Never mind, let’s not quibble over the details.