GORDON RAMSAY IN SUSSEX

Not an F word was heard in Sussex recently when Gordon Ramsay shot his New Year TV episode of the F Word with cheesemakers at the High Weald Dairy on Tremains Farm in Horsted Keynes.

Mark and Sarah Hardy, owners of the High Weald Dairy – the leading Sussex cheese-makers, who hand-make a large range of award-winning cheeses – hosted Gordon Ramsay and showed him how to make Halloumi cheese for the programme, which focuses on ‘Greeks versus Moroccans’.

While he was there, Ramsay tasted some of the High Weald classic cheeses, including Saint Giles and Tremains Cheddar and he particularly liked the Smoked Duddleswell. He also signed a copy of World Kitchen, his latest cookery book, for the Hardys saying: ‘A big thank you for teaching me to make the perfect Halloumi’.

“Gordon got the hang of it in no time and seemed to enjoy the process of making Halloumi, which is one of the quickest cheeses to make, being prepared in just four to five hours,” said Mark Hardy, High Weald Dairy’s Master Cheesemaker, who appears in the programme.

Filming went on for four hours and many cups of tea were consumed while Ramsay performed before the cameras. However, Sarah Hardy commented that he had a gentle air and declared him to be “a very charming man – not at all the persona we all think we know and love to hate on TV!”

The High Weald Dairy makes cheeses with organic cow milk from its own farm, as well as goat and sheep milk and has won more awards than you can shake a stick at in the last year. Most recently, it won two golds at the 2009 British Cheese Awards for its organic cow milk Ashdown Foresters and Brother Michael cheeses. Just two weeks later in October, its Saint Giles, a semi-soft organic cow milk cheese with an edible orange rind, won Best English Cheese and Best British Cheese and was placed 5th in the World at this year’s World Cheese Awards.

To find out more, see www.highwealddairy.co.uk. Gordon Ramsay’s F Word will be shown at 9pm on 29th December on Channel 4.