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Rejuvenating cheesemaking with Clara Diez

We hear from Clara Diez, artisan cheesemonger and self-proclaimed cheese activist…

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Words by Laura Field

Photo by Alexander Castro Luque

“We feel that we have a vocation to encourage people to experience cheese. It’s not just about buying, but also about engaging in conversations and allowing consumers to come and discover different cheeses.”

 

– Clara Diez, Founder of Formaje cheese boutique in Madrid

Photo by Alexander Castro Luque

What is Formaje, and why did you create it?

I founded Formaje in 2018 with my husband, Adrián. We’d both been working in the world of cheese for four years, focusing on artisanal cheese production. We’d started to develop a deep understanding of the world of artisanal cheese, as well as of the challenges that small cheese producers were facing.

 

That’s when we decided to found Formaje. We created it as a platform to help educate people on artisanal farming and cheesemaking, but in a modern and engaging way.

 

We wanted to change the image of artisanal cheesemaking to connect more with a younger audience. Our ambition was always to rejuvenate the cheese sector and speak of artisanal practices in a way that was accessible to the wider public. We have a cheese boutique in Plaza de Chamberí in central Madrid, and sell artisanal cheeses from Spain and across Europe online.

 

We feel that we have a vocation to encourage people to experience cheese. It’s not just about buying, but also about engaging in conversations and allowing consumers to come and discover different cheeses. The idea is that this experience is a sensory one – it allows us to show all the work that goes into the products.

A pair of hands on a block of cheese
Photo by Justino Diez

Photo by Justino Diez

Photo by Pablo Zamora

You've called yourself a cheese activist. What do you mean?

For me, an activist is someone who fights to create visibility around something that ordinarily isn’t widely spoken about, or of which there isn’t enough awareness in society. I believe that all of us who defend something related to artisanal production are activists, because we’re trying to defend a way of consuming that isn’t so common today.

 

Our society mostly nourishes itself now with industrial products rather than artisanal ones. These industrial products remove any link with the countryside and the people who create the products. Formaje opposes this.

 

We’re trying to show people that by eating a delicious, artisanally made, gastronomically rich cheese, they are also contributing to an entire process that creates value and helps keep these artisanal practices alive.

 

This is why we see ourselves as working on a form of activism – we’re trying to make visible ways of consuming that don’t occupy the space and position in society that they should. I’m not the only activist; anyone who defends an artisanal way of consuming produce is also an activist.

Cows eating grass in a field

Photo by Juan Sixto

Do you have a favourite Spanish cheese or food region?

Galicia is a fabulous place. It’s a region that’s really pushing its cheese production – though it has always been an important cheese-producing area. Thanks to its rainy climate and plenty of space for grass to grow, there’s lots of nourishment for animals – cows, importantly. It’s historically been a place grazed by cattle, unlike other parts of Spain that have drier climates. Galicia has always interested me – but now, more than ever, we’re seeing new, innovative cheesemakers surging there.

 

You can try extremely ancient varieties in Galicia – for example, Queixo do Pais (‘country cheese’), traditionally made at home by women using milk from the two or three cows owned by their family. There are also new cheeses made by the likes of Airas Moniz, which has really boomed in Spain in recent years, bringing something new to Galicia in the form of a blue cheese, which isn’t typically produced there. Galicia’s natural landscapes also make it an unbeatable place – it’s beautiful.

What does sustainable travel mean to you?

For me, sustainable travel is all about respecting the place that you’re visiting – adapting to the way of living and being there. I think it’s very important not to impose ourselves on the places that we visit. I like to find connections and links to places and experiences – things that make me feel closer to how life is truly lived on a daily basis.

What should visitors to Formaje expect when they come to see you in Madrid?

The Formaje boutique is open from 10am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday. We also offer two-hour cheese tastings during which we share our knowledge about various cheeses in a convivial space under our cheese shop. By doing so, we encourage people to come and both enjoy the flavours of artisanal cheese, and to learn about the processes of creating it. These tastings usually take place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and can be booked on our website.

Photo by Alexander Castro Luque

Glossary

The quality of being able to continue over a period of time, or the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance (Camrbdige Dictionary).

This refers to ‘the variability of living organisms, between and within species, and the changeability of the ecosystems to which they belong’ (The Convention on Biological Diversity).
According to the Responsible Tourism Partnership, ‘Responsible Tourism requires that operators, hoteliers, governments, local people and tourists take responsibility, and take action to make tourism more sustainable. Behaviour can be more or less responsible, and what is responsible in a particular place depends on environment and culture’. The concept was defined in Cape Town in 2002 alongside the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The process of protecting an environment and returning it to its natural state; for example, bringing back wild animals that used to live there (Cambridge Dictionary).
A movement reducing the distance between producers and sales and consumer establishments to a radius of under 100 kilometres, with the aim of minimising the effects that large-scale industry have on the planet, including soil erosion, water pollution, and habitat loss for wild species.
Being ‘green’ is used to describe actions or initiatives that are conducted in a sustainable way, in an attempt to reduce impact on planetary resource limits. However, the word can be used to describe actions or initiatives that do not actively do this, but rather convey an ethos of being planet-friendly; eg being outside, walking or riding a bike. This can be considered ‘greenwashing’ (when an individual or company paints an action as credibly sustainable when, in fact, it is an action that beenfits them, or that should be considered the bare minimum).