The man who opened Scotland's first artisan cheese shop

And tales of other Edinburgh foodie heroes

Iain J Mellis. Pic: I J Mellis & Sons

There is a scene in Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece “Treasure Island” in which the great Edinburgh author has his treasure-seeking hero, Jim Hawkins, come upon Ben Gunn, a pirate marooned on the island by his buccaneering shipmates years earlier.

Desperate though he is to be returned to civilisation with the aid of young Hawkins, his first thought is not of rescue – but cheese: “You mightn’t happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? … Many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese - toasted, mostly - and woke up again, and here I were.”

And here we are. Not marooned, obviously, but there’s no doubt that all these years later many of us are Gunn’s new shipmates aboard “milk’s leap towards immortality,” as US writer and TV personality Clifton Fadiman memorably described cheese.

It has not always have been thus. Indulge a small wedge of childhood memory, of a holiday in France. The first morning saw our pater familias return from an excited dash to the boulangerie and fromagerie grinning like a Cheshire Cat: “Bread and cheese, what more could a man ask” he announced a touch melodramatically, as his three sons crumbled like fine feta into mocking laughter. Bread and cheese in Scotland, in those distant days, was most likely to be a featureless pan loaf and a slab of mass-produced, fluorescent orange cheddar you could bounce. But not in France, and as he unpacked the fresh baguettes and ripe brie we were soon happily tucking in, converted, as we have been ever since.

First artisan cheese shop

The man who is to fromage what Martin Wishart has been to fine dining in this part of the world – the central pioneer – nods in agreement as we discuss my introduction to great cheese over a coffee.

Edinburgh’s love affair with chewy milk, as Chandler Bing described cheese in TV’s Friends, owes much to the passionate efforts of Iain J Mellis. He is, in effect, “the big cheese.” When he and wife and business partner Karen set out to open an artisan cheese shop it would be Scotland’s first, here in Edinburgh’s Victoria Street.

Since Iain’s pioneering work, which began in the 1990s, appreciation for artisan cheeses from Scotland and further afield has exploded.

The city’s appetite for fine cheese appears insatiable, and in that we’re not alone. The UK cheese market is projected to pass £3.75 billion by 2034 – up from almost £2.9 billion last year, with much of that growth driven by the growing taste for premium and artisan cheeses. The demand has also led to a growing export industry, with the UK flogging £2.75 billion worth overseas last year.

Doors opening

The city’s newest cheese shop, The Big Cheese is opening its doors today in Broughton Street, led by former commercial director and consultant, Neil Cunningham, who said: “After 25 years working in the corporate world in London and Edinburgh, I can’t wait to launch my own independent business and nurture my passion for cheese right here in my hometown.“

Neil Cunningham of The Big Cheese Store

The growing trend is watched with more than passing interest at I J Mellis, an empire that not only supplies some of the Capital’s finest restaurants, including most of those boasting a Michelin star, but also has a growing network of stores selling direct to the public. In fact six in total, three in the Capital and one each in St Andrews, Glasgow and recently London, the newest addition in the trendy Crouch End area of North London under the management of son Cameron. Older sibling Rory is increasingly at the helm of the Scottish operations and Iain’s wife Karen is still involved day to day – a true family business.

The man himself told The Inquirer that he is taking more of a back seat – though full retirement is not something he ever imagines for himself. His journey began in his native Inverness, with a job at the North of Scotland Milk Marketing Board. When they wanted to start production in Inverness, Iain was sent to Kirkwall in Orkney, working with Isle of Mull Cheddar to study cheesemaking. In the years that followed time was also spent in one of England’s great cheese hotspots – Cheshire – where he continued to learn as he grew more and more interested in smaller scale, traditional cheese-making.

This was due in no small part to two of Iain’s other great passions – travel and cycling.

On holidays to take in the Tour de France he would also sample local cheeses and maintains the first time he tried a goat’s cheese was a defining moment. “It was a completely different flavour from anything I’d had. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Goat’s milk cheese is still a favourite.”

The first cheese store

Iain’s parents both worked in retail, so little wonder that his thoughts turned to opening a cheese shop of his own. Given there was then no specialist artisan cheese retailer in Scotland, he spent time with and took advice from The Cheese Shop in Chester, and Neal’s Yard in London before opening his first store in Victoria Street.

He has always been fascinated by affinage – the art of ageing and maturing cheese. At the firm’s storage premises in Leith, up to 100 cheeses are aged at any one time, from soft, fresh cheeses to those requiring extended maturation. It’s something of a climate-controlled dance, quickening and slowing the maturing process, but you really do need to know the steps to ensure the cheese has maximum flavour when it’s time to eat it.

How does he view the boom that has happened since he first opened on Victoria Street? “In some ways, the biggest change has been about wider lifestyle. It’s been about more than cheese – as people have travelled to different countries, sampled other food, enjoyed al fresco dining, what and how we eat has changed for lots of people. An increase in the number of shops selling artisan cheese, or bread, or coffee and pastries, or even good wine, reflects that.”

It’s not all been plain sailing. “Margins can be tight – artisan cheese is an expensive product, as expensive as top-quality steak for example – and the rising costs of doing business for all retailers has been well documented. When many people come into our shops, it is often for something special – perhaps for a dinner party or an event. That’s one of the reasons we try to make the experience as enjoyable as we can. Like many food retailers we continued through Covid, socially distanced. People queued up to get their cheese, and I think often to get out of the house and speak to someone.”

Tales of Bridget

Conversely, he says, the price of production and storage does mean that for many people good cheese is no longer a diet staple which he argues is regrettable. “In many other countries, cheese is still a much more regular part of what people eat day in and day out.”

There were other early pioneers. Restaurateurs Martin and Gay Irons ran Martin’s in Rose Street Lane, one of the earliest fine dining rooms in the city, the highlight of which – assuming you had the time to spare – was Martin’s Cheese Monologue. The restaurant specialised in Scottish and Irish cheeses, and in his entertaining but lengthy discourse over the cheese trolley Martin’s final flourish was to whip out a photo of Bridget, one of the cows whose Kerry milk provided one of the Irish cheeses. Photographic provenance.

East Lothian’s ‘cheese lady’ Svetlana Kukharchuk. Pic: The Cheese Lady

Nowadays there are more knowledgeable enthusiasts spreading the cheese, if you’ll pardon the phraseology. The Cheese Lady stores in Haddington and North Berwick were set up by Svetlana Kukharchuk, whose first store was in St Andrews, and who also has a serious reputation in the world of farmhouse and artisan cheeses.

Svetlana has seen social media help spread the word when it comes to really good cheese, helping drive demand. She maintains this, in turn, has helped improve quality and variety of Scottish and British cheeses.

In terms of the number of our cheese types, we are now up there with the likes of France, of whom its then President Charles de Gaulle said: “How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?” In fairness, in the eyes of Iain Mellis, we have some way to go before we can match the enormous spread of cheese-maker variety in France. “You’ll have dozens of different makers of each variety in France, all of them different. We don’t have that here.”

Tanny Gill is another local cheese pioneer. The recent founder of the Scottish Cheese Academy was born near Mumbai in India, arrived in the UK more than 20 years ago and ended up working in Tobermory making the renowned Isle of Mull cheddar. It was to open a bright new world of infinite cheese variety, a career built in the cheese industry to the point where he is now a Scottish judge in the World Cheese Awards.

He has established the Academy to help deliver high-quality training and education about his beloved cheese to the hospitality sector and others interested in cheese and its making. Of his journey, he has said: “Where I grew up there was really one cheese to speak of - paneer. You can cook with it and you can have it as a snack, fry it - it is very versatile, quite subtle, but that was my only experience with cheese before coming to Scotland.”