Bon Fromage cheese festival to hit Sydney this weekend

Get ready to bathe in a sea of brie, banon and beaufort as Sydney welcomes its first French cheese festival. Not only is it free entry, but the cheese is also free.

More than 40 varieties and 500 kilos of French cheese will be on offer at Carriageworks.

Get ready to bathe in a sea of brie, banon and beaufort as Sydney welcomes its first French cheese festival.

This weekend, more than 40 varieties and 500 kilos of French cheese will be on offer at Carriageworks in Redfern.

For free.

Bon Fromage cheese festival is coming to Sydney for the first time, after launching in Melbourne last year.

It’s hoped the free event will give people a chance to try as many cheeses as possible.

Presented by the Centre National Interprofessionel de l’Economie Laitière (CNIEL), it will be held in Bay 25 of Carriageworks from 11am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Not only is it free entry, but the cheese is also free says Laurent Damiens of CNIEL, which is the equivalent of the French Dairy Board.

“We wanted to give the chance to try different cheeses to as many people as we can, making it free removes the barriers to coming along and trying new stinky choices,” he says.

Damiens hopes that people will be adventurous and delve into some of the lesser known French cheeses on offer.

Bon Fromage cheese festival is coming to Sydney for the first time.

Perenzin ​​ciock ​vino ​r​osso is a semi-hard cheese that has been aged for 10 days in fermenting grape must, which imparts a middle spicy wine-like flavour to this semi-hard cheese.

Perrin ​le ​s​ecret ​de ​s​​​cey is made to the same recipe as ​​Morbid, but uses pasteurised milk. The morning’s milk is processed and topped with a layer of ash to stop the fresh curd drying out. The curd from the second milking of the day is then layered on top.

St Mamet ​c​antal is one of the oldest cheeses in France, a semi-hard cheese dating back to the times of the Gaus’ rule. The cantal jeune, aged one to two months and is sweet and mild, the cantal entre-deux or cantal doré is aged from two to six months and has more bite while the cantal vieux, aged more than six months, has a strong, cheddar-like taste.

The Bon Fromage cheese festival will be held this weekend.

There will also be a wine bar and free masterclasses and demonstrations on how to pair cheese with wine and the difference between creamy and stinky cheeses.

While Australians typically serve up a cheese board as a pre-dinner snack, Damiens suggests plating it up in the middle of the meal.

“In France, we traditionally serve cheese after main course, on a cheese board, before dessert,” he says.

“This is the traditional order of a typical French lunch or dinner that has been registered by UNESCO; a starter, a main dish, a cheese plater and then a dessert.

“But new generations eat cheese in France at any time, between meals, as a starter, in a salad, at any moment. Or do it like the students do and have a cheese night, everyone brings a cheese and they share a cheese dinner, with baguette and wine of course.”

Originally published as Bon Fromage cheese festival to hit Sydney this weekend