Kent Cheese Monger turns Cheesemaker

Finn Dunlop is currently the General Manager and Head Buyer at Macknade, a leading independent food hall and deli in Faversham, Kent.  He has been with the company for 11 years and, over that time, built up an excellent knowledge of retailing cheese.  

This experience, augmented by his Board positions at “Produced in Kent”  and “Kent Food Hubs” (also champions of start up artisan food producers), has nurtured his knowledge and love of cheese and allowed him to develop relationships with cheesemakers and other industry professionals alike. So much so, that Finn has become increasingly keen to apply this interest into cheese production and dairy processing. 

Last Dairy Farm in Elham Valley

So when he heard of an exciting opportunity at a local farm in Kent, he knew it was a sign for him to pursue this interest.  The farm were, at that point, producing small amounts of cheese, cream and yoghurt from their own small dairy herd, which they sold at the farm gate and supplied London restaurants with. Using the raw milk and pumping it fresh from the milking parlour to the dairy next door seemed like the ideal playground for Finn to learn the ropes in a small, manageable way. And it was. For a while. Finn was beginning to see a route forward for his cheesemaking.

Fast-forward six months and with the rising water tables in the South East, the farm were forced to mothball their herd and temporarily put a halt to their milking operation.

Not deterred, however, Finn is determined to maintain the momentum that was started and is wasting no time in his mission to make cheese. In fact, he sees it as an opportunity to start with a fresh sheet, allowing him to experiment in a way that would not have been possible before.

He has already taken on a contained unit from a local farmer, close to his home in Wickhambreaux, Canterbury, which he is diligently re-purposing and fitting out, ready to make cheese (it had previously been used to cook hams).

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Pasta Filata

Amongst others, Finn is keen to work on varying styles of pasta-filata stretched curd cheese such as Oaxaca as well as fresh curds and yoghurts.

With his milk source gone, however, Finn is having to start from scratch; he is close to securing local goat’s and cow’s milk producers and he would like to get to a position where all of his cheeses are made with raw milk. At the moment, however, he sees every day as an opportunity for experimentation – trying different recipes using raw versus pasteurised, goats versus cow, pasta-filata versus mould-ripened.

Finn is excited to get to work and is optimistic that he will be able to return to the original farm and their established herd of 90 Holstein Friesians, as well as working with the existing owners to help shape the future of the farm. 

The Chiswick Cheese Market grant will be crucial in enabling me to develop my knowledge and understanding of Cheesemaking.

Cheese Education

Whilst Finn is already self-studying towards the Academy of Cheese Level Two Certification, he feels the augmented Level Two course with hands-on Cheesemaking, as well as the more advanced Level Three cheesemaking modules, all funded by the Grant, will take his technical knowledge and skills to the next level, so he is ready to hit the ground running once everything else falls into place.

Finn also hopes to become an Academy of Cheese Training Partner himself, and is really keen to extend his experience of cheesemaking on to the Macknade’s team and customers, strengthening the understanding of the quality of milk and work that goes in to the production and ageing of cheeses.

Rachel Holding | Academy of Cheese Writer

Member of the Academy, Rachel loves a good cheese and wine session. Her love of all cheeses, artisanal or otherwise, has grown from her early years of working on the cheese counter at Fortnum & Mason.  She has a personal mission to taste as many cheeses as possible and to encourage this passion in others.