Not many years ago foreigners in Taiwan constantly griped about the difficulty of getting decent cheese. Now, with the advent of Jason's, City Super and gourmet supermarkets at Breeze Center, Mitsukoshi and other department stores, there is no shortage of the best cheeses the world has to offer.
Breeze Center offers over 100 kinds hailing from France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and among this wide range of cheeses, a new contender has emerged: cheese made in Taiwan.
Last year Peter Frauchiger, the chef and owner of Ticino, a highly regarded Swiss restaurant in Tienmu, embarked on a venture to produce cheese in Taiwan. It has been no simple task and Frauchiger admits that he is still experimenting with his products. But despite competing against the originals from Europe, these "Made in Taiwan" cheeses are gradually establishing themselves in the local market.
The first question any cheese lover will ask: "Are they as good as their European equivalents?"
For Frauchiger, the question is largely irrelevant. "The main thing is that they are fresh," he says. "For some people, a camembert can only come from France. They will not even try it before saying it is not right."
To get around this attitude, Frauchiger's Tenero cheese is described as "camembert-style," and you'd have to look at the top-shelf imports to find anything comparable.
The same applies to his Calido, a rachlette-style Swiss cheese, and Ticinella, which is a handmade and aggressively fresh mozzarella.
The cheeses are predominantly based on Swiss recipes, and Frauchiger invited a Swiss cheese-maker from home to fine-tune the production process in the early stages of the venture.
For Frauchiger, the great irony of cheese making in Taiwan is that because of the high price of quality milk here, his cheeses are not that much cheaper than regular imports. But then, he is competing on quality rather than price and offers tastes that are only possible when a cheese was made just a few weeks ago.
Of his mozzarella, Frauchiger says, "You know immediately that this is not some Danish imitation. This can compete with the best Italian product. It is also completely handmade."
It also hasn't been sitting around customs and transshipment areas for weeks on end.
It is early still for Frauchiger's cheeses, marketed under the name of his restaurant, Ticino. "We are still experimenting with humidity and other controls," he said.
But even though the cheese-making project only got off the ground last August, Frauchiger is already selling 150kg of cheese each week.
While cheese is the most exciting part of the venture, it is not the only new product, and Ticino is also releasing a range of flavored and plain yogurt drinks. Frozen yogurt is in the works, along with healthy whey drinks that make use of the byproducts of cheese making.
Here again, Frauchiger believes that freshness, the smaller quantities of sugar and the absence of additives and artificial flavoring will have a stronger appeal than fancy marketing.
Why did Frauchiger get involved in cheese making? "To make cheeses and to sell them," he says, before admitting to a more exulted mission: a question of cultural education.
At Chococheese, a new restaurant built around the cheese-making venture, Frauchiger has also held classes in cheese making. It's not like you can then go home and make your own cheeses, he admits, but it teaches people what is involved in making cheese and how it should be appreciated.
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