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The cheeses of the South
Appears in
By Mark Hix
Published 2006
Eastside Cheese Company Years ago, when I worked at the Candlewick restaurant at Mr Pontacs bar and restaurant in the city, the cheesemonger brought me a piece of a cheese called Tornegus. British cheeses were not at the top of shopping lists then, and the story of it being a Caerphilly with a washed rind seemed absurd at the time. What I didn’t know then was what its creator was up to.
James Aldridge worked in the building trade and his partner, Pat worked in a shop near Southampton, selling run-of-the-mill ham, provisions and cheeses. Due to an injury, James had to think of a new career, so they arrived at the idea of a cheese shop. They found a site in Beckenham and started selling the usual blocks of good-value Cheddar, along with unpasteurized farmhouse cheeses, which he selected and personally collected himself from worthy cheese-makers.