Chinese pioneer finds that French-style curds please expat palates, Mark Graham reports.

Finding fresh, French-style cheese in Beijing was a difficult mission until Liu Yan set up his grandly named business, Le Fromager de Pekin, which concentrates on making the soft, pungent-smelling varieties that are so popular in Europe.

Liu Yan's first cheese experience was at college. "There were 20 different kinds of cheese served with French wine. It was very smelly, but I liked it a lot," he says. Mark Graham / for China Daily

Until French-trained Liu came along, people who had a hankering for fresh fromage - mostly expatriates, or Chinese who have lived overseas - had to pay inflated supermarket or deli prices for a product that might have lingered on the shelves too long. The other option was to order the cheeseboard selection at a posh hotel restaurant - an expensive exercise.

Liu began on a small scale, producing brie and camembert-style cheeses, initially at his home and, later, at a factory in the suburbs of the capital city. Reaction was favorable, so much so that Liu began experimenting with other varieties that also received approval from the city's cheese-loving gourmands.

"When I first ask people what they thought, they said it was fantastic," he recalls. "I did a menu degustation in a restaurant and there were about 50 people from different countries and I tried them with the different cheeses. I started by making four cheeses and had plenty of time to experiment with different kinds; we now have 15 choices.

"The most popular is the Beijing gris, which is similar to a camembert, I don't want to call it camembert, because it is not exactly the same, as the color and texture is different. Next, I will make a semi-hard cheese. I could easily double production if the demand is there but I don't want to grow too fast, the most important thing is to keep up the quality."

Until Liu went to study business in the Auvergne region of France a decade ago, he had not sampled real, non-processed cheese, only the bland-tasting packaged variety sold in supermarkets throughout China. Like most people tasting cheese for the first time, the smell and taste took some getting used to.

"The first proper cheese I tried was when the university had a party to welcome all the foreign students," says Liu. "There were 20 different kinds of cheeses served with French wine. It was very smelly, but I liked it a lot.

"Looking back, it was not so strong but it seemed so at the time. Later when I was in Corsica I lived in the middle of a small village and my neighbor was a cheese-maker who had 400 sheep. He taught me how to make cheese and gave me the idea to start a business in China later.

"I wanted to do something original, and thought cheese could be a good idea, so I went to a professional school to learn cheese making. The secret of it is good quality of milk and good factory conditions with good humidity: The best cheese is always made with raw milk, not pasteurized."