“Made, not manufactured”, proclaimed the box that arrived from The Spotted Cow Fromagerie, along with a note on cheese care. No longer do you have to wait for your next trip abroad to buy quality cheese, or settle for the preservative-laden imported cheeses from the supermarket. Just pick up the phone and call (or email) for a batch of your favourite cheese, freshly made and home delivered.

The trend of artisanal food is here to stay. From bread (think The Baker’s Dozen) to beer (The Gateway Brewing Company), Mumbai’s entrepreneurs are bringing some international quality, but locally-made foods to your tables. And it’s a testament to their perseverance that despite the city’s muggy weather they are all experimenting with fermentation. Cheese is the holy grail of fermented products, requiring precise ingredients, temperature and microbes to work their magic. “India is not a brewing or a cheese-making country, as the climate here is quite challenging”, said Prateeksh Mehra, who along with his brother Agnay, launched The Spotted Cow Fromagerie in March 2014.

Mehra is a commercial photographer who started with brewing beer in the basement of his Dahisar bungalow. From beer, the Mehra brothers graduated to cheese, using makeshift equipment and importing the cultures and rennet. “We use vegetarian rennet and our cheeses contain no preservatives”, clarified Mehra. The brothers started small and began testing cheese recipes using locally-sourced cow’s milk. “We are not educated cheese makers so we had to do a lot of experimentation to get the recipes right”, said Mehra. They started making a batch or two every month, getting friends to try out the cheeses and taking them along to wine tastings. “We had really underestimated the market here; we thought we might have to subdue the flavours of the cheeses to appeal to people shifting from processed cheese, but we realised that people actually wanted stronger flavours”, he explained.

The Spotted Cow Fromagerie currently offers two bloomy rind cheeses – Camembay (a Camembert equivalent, and the shot on our opener) and BomBrie (a Brie equivalent). The Brie has a nice bite to it and the pale yellow Camembert is tart, with bitter undertones; both come very close to the original French cheeses, flavour and texture-wise. An Italian style Robiola and the French style Saint-Marcellin will also be available soon.

The Mehras are not the only ones in the city offering handmade artisanal cheeses. While working at Murray’s, a renowned cheese store in New York, Mansi Jasani realised where her calling lay. “The cheese cave at Murray’s was like Disneyland for me, especially the Cheese Boot Camp that I attended, tasting over 70 cheeses in 3 days”, said Jasani. Armed with this experience and a cheese-making certification from the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, Jasani returned to Mumbai and launched The Cheese Collective in February 2013. Working from her home, she has been making a variety of chèvre, which is French for goat’s milk cheese. On offer is fresh chèvre (R300 per 100 grams) as well as herbed and fruited variants (R350 per 100 grams). The fruited chèvre is a tad sweet because of the cranberries, though perfect for those with a sweet tooth. The herbed variant was the winner – subtle flavours of mixed herbs complemented the slightly salty cheese very well and both varieties worked as breakfast spread.

Apart from the chèvre, The Cheese Collective also offers fresh cottage cheese and labneh (both R200 per 100 grams). “In addition, we make chocolate cheese fudge and cheese party balls (both R300 per 100 grams)”, said Jasani. Soon she will also be launching an herbed variant of Cabécou, another goat’s milk cheese from the Midi-Pyrénées region of France. The Cheese Collective accepts orders via email and they need at least a week’s notice. Delivery charges depend upon location and order quantity, and range from R50- 100, or you can collect from their Breach Candy location.

Karl Kothavala’s cheese journey began quite serendipitously when he chanced upon a handwritten cheese recipe in his grandmother’s old cookbook. The experiments began at home and by 2012 Kothavala was selling four fresh cheeses under the brand name Say Cheez, which was rechristened to The Cheez Box in 2014. Soft, creamy cheeses such as Mascarpone, Philadelphia-Style Cream Cheese, Crème Frâiche and Boursin (French-style herbed cheese) are available. Kothavala, who is also the proprietor of Universal Kebab Kona at Tardeo (near Bhatia Hospital), primarily supplies to restaurants and hotels. However, he also caters to retail customers and you can order his cheeses via phone or email. All products are priced at R250 per 200 grams, except the Boursin, which is R300. Delivery charges depend upon order quantity and location. Alternatively you can pick up the cheese from their location in Fort or from the Universal Kebab Kona outlet. One or two days’ advance notice and a minimum order quantity of 200 grams is required.

Get your fix

The Spotted Cow Fromagerie thespottedcow.in. Tel:. Email: thespottedcowfromagerie@ gmail.com. R300 per 100 grams, including delivery.

The Cheese Collective facebook. com/TheCheeseCollective. Tel:. Email: info@ thecheesecollective.in. From R200. Delivery charges extra.

The Cheez Box Tel:. Email: . From R250. Delivery charges extra.