Charlie Turnbull
Charlie Turnbull grew up on a small farm in Pirbright, near Guildford Surrey, growing lamb and beef, and where his mum was offering box schemes way back in the early 80s. Most of what the family ate back then: lamb and bullock, had zero food miles; but they had no idea this would become a huge trend in the future. Being one of five children, Charlie didn’t exactly grow up with culinary skills… more gluttonry skills he seems to remember! Charlie learned two things around the kitchen table – to use good ingredients and keep it simple. Actually truer ever now than then. And make that three things – the more people at your table the merrier! Around Charlie’s own table you will mostly find his wife Lou and baby daughter, Margo. Charlie tried to be an engineer (turned out his early aptitude for spanners didn’t carry over to thermo-dynamic equations), then an accountant (succeeded but auditing Tottenham loo rolls wasn’t his thing). He came to cheese after visiting cheesemaker Frances Wood, who farmed Alham Wood Organics Buffalo near Shepton Mallet in Somerset. Charlie was considering getting into farming, so worked for a while with her, but quickly realised farming was not the route into cheese that he wanted to take. But the cheese, now there was something that inspired Charlie. He went to see Chris Ashby to learn more about cheesemaking, and Bob Farrand at the Guild of Fine Food (and founder of The World Cheese Awards), to learn more about cheese varieties and how to care for and sell cheese. He found it the most wonderful subject – from sunlight to grass to cow to milk to junket to curd to cheese. Press it, scald it, mill it, salt it; put it in a mould, inject it with mould, wrap it in cheese cloth, in tin foil, in waxed paper, in wax; put it in a box, sell it at the counter in a restaurant, at a farm stall; give it for Christmas, eat it with a pork pie, wash it down with a pint of beer, maybe even cook with it.
Size: 3226px × 4847px
Photo credit: © Nathan King / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: charlie, cheese, cheeses, turnbull
