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02/07/10 - Our blue-veined blogger Neil Sowerby talks Stilton with Marianne Lumb

In recent blogs I've written about Professional Masterchef finalist Marianne Lumb from Stilton heartland Long Clawson and the brilliant new cheese bible, Cheese: The World's Best Artisan Cheeses (Jacqui Small, £30) by Patricia Michelson, which is very complimentary about the world's finest blue-veined lactic product!

Bizarrely, I've discovered a link. Patricia runs La Fromagerie, just off Marylebone High Street. London rival Neal's Yard may have done more to champion our native cheese but for a panorama of European cheese La Fromagerie's temperature-controlled, humidified Cheese Room can't be rivalled.

La Fromagerie was the setting for the launch of Marianne's book, Kitchen Knife Skills (Apple, £14.99), which on the back of Masterchef exposure cleared an astonishing 40,000 copies.

I found this out when I finally tracked down Marianne, one of Britain's finest private chefs. She has cooked for, among many famous folk, David Cameron. We expect nowadays the PM would choose the starter and main, while Nick Clegg would be responsible for the pudding option. Sour grapes provided by Gordon Brown?

It's a far cry from Marianne's girlhood as daughter of a Long Clawson butcher. She recalled: "I spent one entire summer turning the cheese in Long Clawson dairy. It was tough, quite an experience (Stilton hoops or moulds containing curds have to be turned daily to ensure consistent drainage).

"It is worth all this effort, though. Stilton really is a quality product. And it still means home to me.

"I remember I was over in Australia, setting up a cafe in Sydney. I was a bit lonely, homesick. Then I wandered into a food hall and saw some Stilton on the shelf. I bought a piece and felt so much better.''

Marianne, who is a quarter Swiss, admits to a love of the high Alpine cheeses, and confesses she wasn't keen on blue Stilton as a child, but grew to love it.

Her favourite recipes utilising it? With cob nuts in a salad for Christmas or substituting it in the classic French Roquefort and pear souffle.