We speak to Scotland’s cheesemaker of the moment, Kristen Allan, the Aussie native who traded the corporate world for kitchens. Now based in Aberfeldy, she travels across the country teaching people how to make their own exceptional cheeses at home
“The second I got my hands in the curds, I felt this kind of magic and alchemy,” says Kristen Allan. She is reflecting on the moment she realised her love for cheese was more of a vocation.
After doing the whole corporate job in London thing and feeling unfulfilled by the daily grind, she had pivoted to hospitality, throwing herself into restaurant life with characteristic exuberance and working her way up. “I met this guy who was high up in the cheese industry,” she recalls. “He said, ‘You know, if you’re interested in this, you should really learn how to make it.’”
She promptly enrolled on a course – cue that fateful moment. “I started making cheese on the side, and running underground dinners in random locations with people I’d met along the way,” she says. “It was brilliant, but I totally burnt out.”
To recalibrate, she undertook a three-month residency in Tasmania, lodging with a couple who ran their own dairy. “They were so generous with their knowledge. We would sit down for a coffee with their milk, use their butter on toast and talk. It was really about community and that was wonderful,” she says. “They made me realise that I had more than an average interest in, and knowledge of, cheese – and that I could probably do something with it.”
For Kristen, that meant making her own cheese in Australia. Soon she was supplying Sydney’s top restaurants and bakeries, working almost entirely by herself from a small, windowless kitchen. “I was going through about 1,500 litres of milke a week; it was crazy. Needless to say, I burnt out again.”
A therapist urged her to address the recurring theme, so she decided to pare things back and run classes centred around food and community. “Creating beautiful dishes and sharing them around a table is such joy,” she explains. “I wanted to embrace that.”
Six months ago the cheesemaker, who is half-Scottish, hit the road again – this time moving to Scotland’s balmy west coast. Ever the high achiever, she already has a run of successful classes under her belt, with more coming at Bowhouse in Anstruther, Fife. She’s looking forward to experimenting with local produce, working with native flora and fauna to add new flavours to her products, and connecting with likeminded folk.
It has been a positive move, even if her produce is missed in Australia. “A customer emailed to say I’d really upset her three-year-old, who was very fond of my buttermilk ricotta,” she laughs. Sorry, wee man. Australia’s loss is Scotland’s gain.
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Tastemaker: Harris McNeill, the Dundee-based chef bringing splendour to simplicity at Eastfield
