Roquefort

Roquefort one of the three most famous blue cheeses of the world, has a longer recorded history than either of the others (stilton and gorgonzola). It is probably the cheese which Pliny, writing in the 2nd century ad, described as ‘bearing off the prize at Rome’. It is certainly the cheese which the monks of St Gall offered to the Emperor Charlemagne in the 9th century. He first disdained and then, under their tuition, delighted in the veined parts, so much so that he was furnished with two whole Roquefort cheeses each year thereafter. St Gall is not far from the village of Roquefort sur Soulzon, after which the cheese is named.