Our very own Linda Farrand, member of the Club, was our speaker on 14th September 2022. She is, with her husband, the founder of the Guild of Fine Food which organises, amongst many other things, the World Cheese Awards.
We opened our meeting with a few words from our Chair, Melanie Lillie, about the death of Queen Elisabeth II, her long reign and extraordinary devotion to duty and service. She also offered the Club’s good wishes to our new King Charles III.
After our usual delicious trencherman’s lunch Linda took us on an audio-visual tour from the birth of the Guild and then of the Award and its development into an event of international consequence.
She would have us believe that it all came about more or less by chance, that she fell into her career in fine food, and thereafter had a series of lucky meetings with just the right people at the right time. Who miraculously supported the novice organisers for many years. I rather suspect that her ability to recognise the skills that she needed, find just the person who had those skills and her capacity to inspire loyalty also may have had a certain amount to do with it!
She started as a French teacher – developing a love of French food and a dislike of teaching along the way. She married a publisher, suddenly they were publishing a fine food magazine and after an exhibition they had the bright idea of organising a competition to add excitement to their offering. And so it all began.
Along the way there were Great Cheese Robberies (and several other episodes with the light-fingered), a Cheese making chancer who just turned up on the day with his cheese which went on to win, a disappearing il Presidente who failed to turn up to present the prizes, a cast of other characters who – for example – steered her through the DEFRA regulations or transported cheeses across Europe, a serenade of Spanish bagpipes and a search round Ireland for a cheese incinerator.
Linda described 30 years of a fascinating involvement with cheese, and with the trials, tribulations and triumphs of organising an international event. She finished with a tasting of cheese made by the prize-winning “chancer” who is now a judge at the awards. It made for a most engaging talk.
Julia Holman
Speaker Secretary