Every month we build the board around one cheese. In August it's a Saint-Nectaire fermier, and it has changed half the menu with it.
Where it comes from
It comes from a farm on the Puy-de-Dôme side of the Monts Dore, from a herd of forty Salers cows that graze above a thousand metres all summer. The cheese is pressed uncooked, rubbed, and then left on rye straw for eight weeks — long enough for the rind to go grey and slightly furred, which is exactly what you want.
Why this one
Most Saint-Nectaire sold in Paris is the dairy version: pleasant, even, forgettable. The farm version tastes of the cellar it came from — mushroom, wet stone, a little hazelnut at the finish. It is the rare cheese that is better at room temperature after twenty minutes than straight from the fridge, so we cut it early and let it sit.
What we're serving with it
On the board it sits between the fresh goat cheese and the Comté, with walnut bread and a spoon of chestnut honey. In the kitchen it has gone into the truffle tart, where it melts without splitting, and it turns up shaved over the roasted aubergine when we're feeling generous.
It will be on the board until the end of the month. After that we move to a Bleu de Termignon, if our affineur can get it — only three farms still make it.