The 2011 World Cheese Awards is the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan cheese festival in the world. The awards were held on November 23 in the UK at Birmingham, where Isigny Sainte-Mère carried off seven medals. Try them for yourself.
Isigny Sainte-Mère's Fruit Fromages Frais are going to captivate lovers of top quality desserts.
Isigny Sainte-Mère has topped out its premium range with a premium quality Isigny AOP Crème Fraîche. It follows in the footsteps of Isigny Sainte-Mère's Raw Milk Camembert, Raw Milk Butter (unsalted and with Guérande salt crystals), the 200g 16-month mature Mimolette and the 130g Mimolette cocktail pot.
The Isigny Sainte-Mère dairy cooperative has won three gold medals in this year’s International Cheese Awards held at Nantwich, Cheshire on July 26 and 27.Here is the summer line-up from Isigny Sainte-Mère, which marries simplicity with delicious tastes and quality.
The cooperative is launching a range with all the assurances of organic farming :
- Organic rustic style fromage frais, a smooth and silky product with an authentic and robust taste.
The unequalled taste and freshness of Isigny's fromage frais is founded, as ever, on the milk and the terroir. It is made from milk collected exclusively from AB certified organic farms. This rustic style fromage frais not only benefits from the organic conditions but also from an exceptional terroir, that of the Isigny region, which is synonymous with quality in the dairy world.
- Our organic semi-mature Mimolette comes with a double recommendation.
Isigny Sainte-Mère has 60 years of experience in making Mimolette cheese with naturally ripened crust. This skill is applied to an organic Mimolette. Great care is taken over the six months during which the cheeses are ripened and our organic Mimolette is watched over at every stage of its making, to ensure that we can bring you the very best quality.
This summer a new premium range by Isigny Sainte-Mère :
- Our premium extra mature Mimolette.
Matured for 16 months, this Mimolette has had the time to acquire a beautifully firm texture that breaks apart to release delicious nutty flavour notes.
- Our premium mature Mimolette for cocktails has been ripened for 12 months in our ripening chambers to develop all the qualities of its unique taste. Its presentation in tasty cubes in a 130g pot makes it an unusual and distinctive choice delicacy to serve alongside cocktails.
These exceptionally fine Mimolettes have developed their full flavours and been individually watched over as they have developed their beautifully orangey-grey colour.
On June 4, jazz festival crowds at Coutances had the chance to mix jazz with gastronomy, enjoying traditional Normandy dairy products with their music.
That evening 10,000 concert goers turned out (a record for the event!) to take part in the ” Mad Parade” and wake up their taste buds.
For the sixth year of its partnership with this musical event, Isigny Sainte-Mère gave festivalgoers the chance to discover its best known products at a giant tasting session, for which 40 members of the cooperative to share both cheese and their knowledge.
From 8.30pm, 50 metres of table had been laid out for visitors to some of Isigny Sainte-Mère's star products: Pont l’Evêque, Camembert prepared on the barbecue, Camembert ripened with Calvados, the Small Pont l’Evêque with Cider and five peppercorns, mature Label Rouge Mimolette served in cocktail flakes, not forgetting the special 30th Jazz sous les Pommiers anniversary Camemberts.
At the same time, visitors could meet the master buttermakers and master cheesemakers from the cooperative, sharing their know-how and taste for the terroir, with demonstrations of cheese and buttermaking.
The tasting session was supported by the bakers of Coutance, who came with craft-baked bread, as well as the Cotentin cidermakers.
The result was a festive occasion that was as friendly as it was musical!
The next festival promises to be a colourful occasion that will have high expectations to live up to after this year!
From May 28 to June 4, the Normandy town of Coutances will come alive to the sounds of live jazz. The town is just three hours by car from Paris. For the past 30 years it has been the chosen home of the jazz festival Jazz sous les Pommiers.
For a whole week, the big names of international jazz will gather there and play for their following. Since the 25th festival, the Isigny Sainte-Mère dairy cooperative has taken a part in this huge gathering. Why? Because, alongside the festival’s founders, Isigny shares a passion for beautiful and good things to please the senses.
When jazz and the Normandy dairy tradition unite underneath an apple tree, the result is a limited edition hand-ladled Isigny Sainte-Mère Camembert, that proudly carries the colours of the 30th jazz festival!
Where will I find it? From May 23, it will be on sale in participating Coutance shops, in the Isigny Sainte-Mère creamery shop at Isigny sur Mer and exclusively in Paris at the Fil o Fromage cheese bar, 12 rue Neuve de Tolbiac, in the 13th arrondissment.
Meet in Coutances on June 4 for a public tasting. This is an event not to be missed! For cheese lovers and Camembert label collectors everywhere...
The spectacular finale to the festival: a giant cheese board by Isigny Sainte-Mère!
To close the festival on Saturday June 4 from 8.30 to 11pm on the St Nicolas square.
The whole Isigny Sainte-Mère cooperative will be out in force. As well as Camemberts on the barbecues, there will be some choice specialities offered for free: Isigny Camemberts, Camembert ripened with Calvados, Pont l’Evêque, Small Pont l’Evêque with Cider, mature Label Rouge Mimolette as well as delicious Isigny butter.
Justly proud of their know-how, of their classic Normandy specialities for which their cooperative is known, these are the men and women who work every day for Isigny Sainte-Mère and who will turn out to play their part in the celebrations, alongside the craft bakers of Coutances and local cider makers. On this great day, the master buttermakers will not miss the opportunity to celebrate by getting out the butter churns. This delicate hand churning of cream that gives us such wonderful butter. There will be a lot of tastes to enjoy under the apple trees this year...
For all further information on Isigny Sainte-Mère products and recipes, go to www.isigny-ste-mere.com while the jazz festival programmes can be found at www.jazzsouslespommiers.com
Press contact: VFC Relations Publiques; Alexia Deruard (aderuard@vfc.fr) +33 (01) 47 57 67 77
The final was held on Wednesday May 10 at the Paris school of Bakery and Pâtisserie, in the 12th arrondissement
The final was organised on the premises of the Paris school of Bakery and Pâtisserie. The even saw 14 finalists from seven regions rise to the challenge of making «the 2011 best butter croissant with Isigny AOP butter». The field had already been whittled down from 50 training centres. Throughout the day, the finalists worked under the watchful eye of Yann Tabourel, a trainer and formerly one of France's best workers in his chosen trade of patissier (the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France or best workman in France (MOF) is awarded every three years across a range of trades). They were competing, but retained a spirit of camaraderie which has come to characterise this competition every year. This year, the sixth year of the competition, has successfully widened the intake even further.
The jury met to decide the winner at 3pm. The judging panel included professional patissiers (Isabelle Ganachaud, Basile Kamir, Bruno Cormerais (a former MOF), Alain Marie (a former MOF) and Damien Dedun) as well as Romuald Réal, the 2010 winner. Their mission was to judge the technical standards of the finalists, their ability to exploit the characteristics of Isigny AOP butter, and – above all – the taste and quality of their croissants. This is not as simple as it may sound, since there are a multitude of recipes and know-how to apply to this one product.
In front of a large crowd, including many tutors, professional patissiers and journalists, that the results were announced.
And the winner is...?
Winner: Claire BOYER ( from CFA Nantes [44])
2nd place: Yoann GOLLUNSKI (CFA Valenciennes [59])
3rd place: Alexandre BERCHE ( CFA de Valenciennes [59])
4th place: Franck DUNATE (CFA Pau [64])
5th place: Jérémie GORSE ( CFA le Havre[76])
Runner-up: Valentine BENEY ( Lycée de Dardilly [69])
Runner-up: Lynda BERNARD (CFA Vitry sur Seine [94])
Runner-up: Morgan BOULET (CFA Val de Reuil [27])
Runner-up: Romain CABARET ( Ecole Ferrandi Paris [75])
Runner-up: Elodie DOTTER (CFA Bordeaux [33])
Runner-up: Jérémy GENSEL (CFA Livron [26])
Runner-up: Corentin GUILLEMOIS ( CFA Ker Lann Bruz [35])
Runner-up: Anthony KAROLY ( CEPAL Laxou [54])
Runner-up: Ludovic LUTTRINGER (CFA Colmar [68])
Claire BOYER has won a professional training course worth EUR 1500, while the other finalists left with a case of professional equipment. The CFA at Nantes will look after the trophy for the coming year.
Isigny Sainte-Mère congratulates both Claire and her tutor. All those taking part and their teachers are to be congratulated, too.
The 2012 competition will start at the beginning of next year with the regional heats.
Video on Euronews.
The first rounds of Isigny Sainte-Mère’s annual Competition to find the best Croissant made with Isigny AOP Butter 2011 have been running since January 31. The aim is to find the most talented future croissant maker among bakery apprentices at bakery colleges across the different regions of France. This is the sixth competition, a which has proved to be a test of the people taking part in forward looking spirit.The aim is to encourage future generations of bakery professionals and raise their awareness of what constitutes a job well done and to cultivate a taste for good things.
The competition was started by the Isigny Sainte-Mère cooperative, in association with the national association of bakery tutors (AAINB): the Competition to find the best Croissant made with Isigny AOP Butter has become an event which has grown in size: this year about 50 training centres in seven regions are taking part. The grand final will be held on May 11 in Paris, when 14 finalists will measure up to see who makes “the best Croissant with Isigny AOP Butter in 2011”, The competition is open to students attending CAP day release apprenticeship courses or the level five Brevet d'Etudes Professionnelles (BEP) and just one or two students will have been preselected from each college to take part in the regional heats.
Six regional rounds have already taken place across the country, leaving just the Ile de France round on March 7. The judging panels in each region are presided over by the competition organisers, tutors, representatives of the Isigny Sainte-Mère cooperative, as well as working professional bakers. Together, they have jsut one hour to judge the candidates’ technical level, their ability to get the best out of Isigny Sainte-Mère’s specialist AOP butter and, above all, the taste qualities and presentation of the croissants. This is not such a simple exercise as it may seem, when one takes into account the multitude of recipes and the know-how that can be applied to this single, everyday product.
For the second year in a row, Isigny Sainte-Mère’s unsalted Isigny AOP butter has earned a gold medal in the national food competition, the Concours Général Agricole. This prestigious national event is organised as part of the Paris international farm show, the Salon International de l’Agriculture (SIA) held this year from February 19 to 27. This recognition is a reward for the work of the men and women of the Isigny Sainte-Mère cooperative and an exceptional terroir. In fact it is part of a double accolade, since the cooperative’s lightly salted Isigny AOP Butter also won a gold medal.
The full medal line-up:
These many awards encourage us to persevere in our vocation of defending the authenticity, the taste and tradition of our products.
