Raw milk cheese cleared for table
WA foodies are rejoicing with news of the first commercial sale of a previously banned substance - raw milk cheese.
"This is the Ferrari of cheeses," local chef Matt Carulei said as he patted a wheel of the $400/kg King Saul cheese from the Adelaide Hills.
He will be selling the cheese, teamed with a honey parsnip puree and seasonal mushroom shortbread at The Flour Factory restaurant in the city.
"Pasteurisation kills off many of the flavour characteristics which would normally be expressed in a well-made raw milk product," Carulei said.
King Saul is a cow's milk cheese and the first of its kind in Australia. It was previously sold only online direct to customers under a producer's licence.
Chefs, importers and local artisanal cheesemakers have for decades been in a war of words over the bans with Australian governments and health authorities.
Although the bans have not been completely lifted, a meeting of Australian and New Zealand Health Ministers in January lifted the outright prohibition of raw milk products.
WA cheese importer Nick Bath says fear of pathogens was the stated reason for the bans.
"Historically, raw milk has been prohibited in this country for reasons of human health," he said. "But the cheese-eating French aren't dropping like flies, which made our laws look increasingly out of touch.
"This partial lifting of bans is a very positive step forward. This will allow the benchmark cheeses of Europe into Australia, which will give local cheesemakers a standard to work towards."
