Sydney’s Cheese Queen is Opening a Cheesery

Get ready for some stinky cheese. Kristen Allan, popular Sydney cheesemaker known for her work with Full Circle and Cornersmith, is opening a cheesery.

“It's not really a shop. It's more of a production space. A cheesery,” she says. It will be the home of her fresh cheeses and milk products – yoghurt, labne, buttermilk ricotta and fresh curd all made with Country Valley milk. It’ll also be the start of a new Sydney-based mature cheese production.

“We’re putting in a maturing room. It’s still being finished off,” she says. “We will be making some washed rind, some stinky cheese, big stinkers. I want to do different stuff. I’m not going to be making brie or camembert.” Some she plans to wash in alcohol, and wrap some in honey-grappa soaked fig leaves and mature for two weeks (she’s already tried this one). Down the track she may even do older hard cheeses too.

When the Alexandria cheesery opens in early October there’ll be no public access but Allan certainly doesn’t want to keep it that way. “I would really like to say after 3pm on Thursday and Friday people can pop in and buy cheese. I'm going to be pumping out cheese in a room with no windows so I'd love for people to come by and say hi.”

Allan is also planning to run some workshops, similar to what she does at Cornersmith but some in more depth. “I would like to do more intense ones where you come in for two days on the weekend and learn everything. You'd eat cheese, make cheese, see where we make cheese. Cheese is a long and slow process and I want to make the most of that,” says Allan.

If you want to try her cheeses now, Cornersmith Annandale sells a lot of her products. When the store opens, Allan and her business partner Matthew Tickle will also run a stall at Northside Produce Markets, with more stockists to come.

Kristen Allan Cheesemaker is slated to open in October Unit 8, 30-32 Beaconsfield Street, Alexandria.

kristenallancheesemaker.com