Patrick McGuigan is a UK-based cheese writer and teacher, who has travelled from the Swiss Alps to the pastures of Vermont to meet the world’s best cheesemakers, maturers and cheesemongers.

He writes extensively on the subject for national newspapers and magazines, such as The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and Delicious, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme. He has written three books on cheese: The Philosophy of Cheese, published by The British Library; The Cheese Life, co-authored with Mathew Carver; and One Cheese to Rule Them All, published by Murdoch Books.

Patrick has been involved with the Academy of Cheese since it launched in 2017. He wrote the profiles of the 25 and 75 cheeses studied at Level One and Level Two respectively, as well as dozens of the cheese profiles for Level Three, earning him the nickname ‘The Cheese Librarian’ in the process. He has taught the Academy of Cheese Level One and Two courses to well over 500 people, both in person and online. He also runs retail training courses at the Guild of Fine Food and hosts regular cheese talks and tastings for the trade, press and public.

He is a member of the Guilde des Fromagers, a long-standing ‘Super Jury’ judge at the World Cheese Awards and head judge at the Affineur of the Year competition. He has also co-founded several festivals, including the Big Cheese Weekender, the London Cheese Project and Brighton’s OctoberBEST restaurant festival.
As well as cheese, he loves wine, achieving the WSET Level 3 wine qualification with Merit in 2021 and the French Wine Scholar accreditation with highest honours in 2023.