Two of Lancashire’s favourite sons could soon be immortalised - in cheese!
Cheesemakers at Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses have created a celebrity hall of fame to inspire food fans to use their new online ‘Craft a Cheese’ generator.
Olympic cycling gold medallist and Tour De France winner Bradley Wiggins, from Eccleston, Chorley, and former England cricket star Andrew Flintoff, from Ribbleton, Preston, have been named as the inspiration for two of the creations.
‘The Wiggins’ is described as a “strong and distinctive Lancashire cheese with a bit of a bite” which comes “complete with slightly hairy cloth around the sides”.
Meanwhile ‘The Flintoff’ is a “big, chunky piece of Lancashire cheese with a liberal addition of ale”, ensuring “you’ll be bowled over after a couple of bites”.
The firm, based at Wilson Fields Farms, Button Street, Inglewhite, near Preston, now wants people to think of their own ideas to see if they can use their creativity to come up with a winning flavour.
Peter Elvin, marketing manager at Butlers, a third-generation family business founded in 1939, said the winner would receive £1,000.
He said: “We wanted to get people engaged with ideas for funny cheeses so we came up with celebrity personalities and thought ‘if they had a cheese, what would it be?’
“We are famous for our Lancashire cheese, but have been focusing on creating new, continental and artisan style cheeses in the last five years or so, and seeing if we can make them in this country.
“We’re always on the hunt for something a bit different.
“A lot of people stay in touch with us via email and on the internet and we run competitions for cheese-based recipes. We’ve had hundreds of replies and eventually hope to put a recipe book together.
“To make it easy for people who don’t want to write really long ideas and just have a bit of fun, we came up with the Craft a Cheese generator.”
The team from Butlers will visit the Great British Cheese Festival at Cardiff Castle on Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23, during British Cheese Week.
Peter said: “Whatever the winning cheese is we’re going to try and make some to take down there and to give to people to see what they think.
“We want to celebrate local achievement, so The Wiggins or Flintoff could be there too.
“Whoever created the cheese will be invited to come down too for a night out and to stay in a hotel, and who knows, we may even end up producing and selling it.”
To create your cheese visit www.craftacheese.co.uk.