If I had to say I had a favorite food it would be cheese. There are so many varieties of cheese - colors, flavors, textures - most of them highly agreeable. I think rinded soft-centered cheeses are my favorite - the brie and camemberts, for the most part, but I'm often taken with a good smoked or a fine feta. In fact, I'll turn up my nose at very little indeed.

So, I read in the paper about a cheese show in Melbourne - the first official gathering of Australian Specialist Cheesemakers that *I'd* ever heard of - and knew it was for me.

Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Show 1998

 Brown Brothers supplied a handful of fine wines for the occasion, and armed with our booklet of who was who, we set off to do the taste test. There were a large number of sheep and goat cheeses. Cheesemakers are trying to raise the awareness of these kinds of cheeses, and gave us a great array to choose from. Soft-centered mould-ripened cheeses also made a big showing - I don't know if it's a fashion to create those sorts of cheeses at the moment, but we had some fine examples. Smoked cheese, cheeses flavored with pepper and herbs, and even Buffalo cheeses were also in evidence, as were the more traditional cheeses. There were also some examples of yoghurt to try. I think the show had just about everything.

Notable cheeses included:
    Ashgrove Farmhouse Cheese's Bush Pepper. The pepper flavor, derived from the berry fruit and leaves of the Tasmanian Native Pepper tree, was great - spicy rather than straight peppery.

    Mil Lel Superior Parmesan. Dairy Farmers has taken over the Kraft franchise to do Parmesan in this part of the world, and I can see why. It was good. I've seen it in supermarkets since then - they now have the Mil Lel label on the package - hooray for them!

    Heidi Gruyere. Heidi Farmhouse had a truly excellent Gruyere on display. This later was voted best cheese at the show. We bought ourselves a hunk of this and felt very proud.

    St. Lukes. Tasmanian Highland Cheeses were a sheep-and-goat's-milk endeavor. I thought their St. Lukes white mould rinded chevre was very good indeed, but perhaps a little salty in anything but small quantities.

    Cabecou in Oil. Kytren Goats Cheese had a fabulous marinated Cabecou, made from goat's milk.

    Mungabareena. Parmalat's Mungabareena was the cheese I voted as best cheese of the show. A soft rind cheese (you might have guessed it!) with a golden exterior and a soft, flavorful interior, it was exactly the sort of thing I adore.

My favorite specialty cheesemaker, Timboon Farmhouse Cheese, was also in evidence. We try to visit their premises every year or so (told you I like them!). They were showing off only a small selection of their range, including the unparalleled marinated Gourmet Feta, their traditionally good Camembert, and their Petit Fleur - a firm washed-rind cheese, relatively new to their lineup.

All in all, I was impressed with the range of types and tastes of cheese that were on display. There was nothing I tasted that was less than very good, although obviously cheese tasting involves a good deal of personal preference. I'm a pretty amateur cheese taster, too, so that the earlier cheeses I tried got a better taste from me than the later ones, unfortunately. But I was well pleased with the whole experience and will definitely try it again next year. Backwards around the room, perhaps!