IS cheese the new food trend to hit Singapore? It sure looks like it, especially since that not long after Jones the Grocer made the news with its first-in-Singapore cheese room in its Dempsey Hill gourmet supermarket, a store completely devoted to cheese has opened in River Valley.
La Fromagerie is the brainchild of Edith and Julien Bompard, the husband-and-wife couple who run the successful Saint Julien restaurant in the Central Business District. With the booming economy, it's not surprising that they are expanding their business in the same way that other successful restaurants have expanded - into gourmet retail, bistros and the like.
While cheese may seem like an unusual move, look beyond the shop's premises in Mohd Sultan Road (formerly occupied by Papi restaurant) and you will see more than just the active mould of the cheese in action. La Fromagerie is also the location of its new central kitchen, which will play a pivotal role in Saint Julien's expansion drive as it takes on a major F&B contract and develops its own range of gourmet products.
Chef Bompard says that in March next year, Saint Julien will run the entire F&B operations of a 150-room hotel/service apartment project run by the Ascott Group in the old AIA building in Shenton Way. He will have a fine dining restaurant there, a bar and he will also take care of room service.
"They approached me because they did not want to go to a big F&B company," says chef Bompard. "At first I was not too sure but then we decided this was the way we wanted to go. It's in Shenton Way and we know the area and the clients well, so we're confident. I have been in hotel operations before (he was formerly deputy executive chef at the Raffles) so I already have the experience."
So, it was pretty much a case of central kitchen first, and the cheese shop came after. Says chef Bompard: "I needed a space for a central kitchen and I wanted a location downtown and not too far from the restaurant. We found this space and since it had a window, we thought, let's do a shop."
But first, the question of why cheese instead of say, a cafe. It's all about quality of produce, says chef Bompard. Rather than go through the hassle of going from fine dining into thinking about the cost-cutting involved in creating a cheaper product, he would rather indulge in seeking out the best quality products to offer for sale.
It's a French thing, he explains, adding that for a French chef, the quality of the product is everything. Cheese is synonymous with France and it represents all that is good about French products - the craft, the passion and the devotion to quality. It's also a bit of a branding exercise for Saint Julien, because 'we have trained our staff with cheese knowledge and it is why we feel better opening a cheese shop than a bistro or cafe'. And besides, with cheese, there are fewer competitors and it's possible to build it up as a niche business.
That is why La Fromagerie by Edith and Julien specialises in artisinal cheese from around Europe - more than 100 varieties sourced from some of France's top affineurs, who act as the middlemen between the cheesemaker and the customer. But more than just buying and selling, affineurs are craftsmen in their own right as they have the skills to buy cheese from the makers, and age them till they are in peak condition for sale.
The affineurs that La Fromagerie works with include famous cheese house Ceneri, as well as Herve Mons, Alleosse and Philippe Olivier. Some 95 per cent of the cheese sold is unpasteurised, meaning that it's made from raw milk, unlike most of the cheeses here which are pasteurised.
It isn't true that pasteurised milk is 'cleaner' and therefore safer to eat, says Charles Fouquet, La Fromagerie's director of operations. "When milk is pasteurised, you remove all the microbiotic life that helps the cheese to grow and develop its depth of flavours. It's a misconception that if it's pasteurised, there's no bacteria and it protects you." Pasteurisation kills off both good and bad bacteria, whereas raw milk cheese is full of healthy bacteria that can actually be helpful in building up immunity, he adds.
But the real benefit is that raw milk cheeses simply taste better, because they are made in conditions that are conducive for them to age and develop rich and deep flavours.
And if you want to learn more, the staff at the shop are more than happy to help you and to guide you in buying a cheese platter for your dinner party. There's also a tasting bar and light dining area where you can sample cheese and have some wine as well.
In addition to cheese, there'll soon be other things to buy. At the end of his month chef Bompard will roll out a full range of take-away food products like sauces, soups, terrines and even pre-cooked dishes that will be sold at the shop as well as through Culina. Right now, it sells artisinal dry goods like AOC olive oil, olives and wine, and there are plans to bring in more products. He is also in talks with other brands to create food products for them, "but we are still negotiating", he says.
Meanwhile, things are going to start to get very busy. But he does not intend to stop cooking at Saint Julien, he stresses. He already has a strong team of chefs who will take care of the central kitchen and the hotel operations. He plans to divide his time between Saint Julien and the new fine dining restaurant at the yet-to-be-named hotel, which he says will be more European, incorporating Italian, French and Spanish cooking styles.
As for his long term plans? That's it for now. "With Saint Julien, the Ascott, the cheese shop and the products, it's enough," he smiles.
Chef Bompard says that in March next year, Saint Julien will run the entire F&B operations of a 150-room hotel/service apartment project run by the Ascott Group in the old AIA building in Shenton Way. He will have a fine dining restaurant there, a bar and he will also take care of room service.
