Come, taste and talk British cheese with Yvonne Yeoh of Neal’s Yard Dairy
We’re thrilled to be welcoming Yvonne Yeoh of Neal’s Yard Dairy to Hill Street on Thursday 10th October and Friday 11th October for some very special tastings at Hill Street West Hobart and Hill Street Sandy Bay.
Yvonne Yeoh has been a monger at Neal's Yard Dairy since 2016. Originally from Singapore, she currently calls New York home after living in London for 24 years.
Yvonne's professional life in food began in the kitchen as a pastry chef who was more interested in tempering cheese than chocolate. After a short stint as a baker, Yvonne sought a new challenge. It was in a market in Lyon, surrounded by an array of soft goat's milk cheeses, when she realised that the alchemy of transforming milk into cheese mirrors the magic of turning flour into bread.
Curiosity piqued, Yvonne joined Neal's Yard Dairy as a restaurant specialist on their wholesale team in London and now serves as their sales director.Neal’s Yard Dairy has been a leading force in the support and celebration of producers of farmhouse cheeses from the UK and Ireland since humble beginnings in 1979 in a disused courtyard in Covent Garden in London. Established by Nicholas Saunders, who also established a co-operative bakery, flour mill, apothecary, and café at the same site, the dairy initially sold Saunders’ own goat’s cheese and Greek yogurt, which he had been inspired to make after a trip to Greece the year before.
This range grew with the sale of the business to Saunders’ business partner Randolph Hodgson, who, after receiving a piece of cheddar from a cheesemaker in Devon in the post, travelled the countryside and returned to London with a carload of traditional cheeses. Thus began Neal’s Yard Dairy’s dedication to connecting urban consumers with rural cheese producers, by selecting, maturing and selling farmhouse cheeses from around the UK and Ireland.
Fast forward to today and Neal’s Yard continues to work with around 40 cheesemakers and sell cheeses from four beautiful sites around London, as well as internationally. We’re delighted to be able to tap into the wonderful, traditional cheeses Neal’s Yard Dairy selects and tends, and to bring them to our customers in Tasmania.
At our upcoming tasting events Yvonne will be sharing her knowledge about cheeses of the British Isles, with opportunities to taste and buy some very special cheeses including Colston Basset Stilton, Cornish Kern, Hafod Cheddar, Spark Red Leicester, Westcombe Cheddar, Appleby’s Cheshire, Tunworth, and Cornish Yarg.
