How did you become a cheesemonger?
It's a long story... It starts quite simply: my parents were dairy farmers in Seine-et-Marne. So I'm a bit like Obelix: I fell into a pot of milk when I was little! That's the first step: my taste for cheese and dairy products was passed on to me by my farmer parents. After that, school was very difficult, I wasn't made for it, and I had to think about my career path very quickly. Since I love eating, I wanted to go into cooking! But at 14, I did an internship with friends of my parents and was put off the profession in three days... Then, in my third year of high school, I found myself with a summer job at the dairy where my parents supplied milk for cheese making. That’s where I had the encounter of my cheese-making life. I saw people passionate about making cheese, even though, it must be said, the working conditions are quite tough. In a dairy, it's 34 to 36 degrees, very humid, and when you age the cheese, it's often very cold. It's very difficult, but it's fascinating and you never stop learning! Thirty years later, I continue to go, day after day, to the school of cheese...In 2007, you became a "Meilleur Ouvrier de France". How did that change your life?
It may seem strange, but initially, I didn't go for the title but to relearn my trade after ten years of practicing, which led me to think I had reached my level of incompetence. So, with the agreement of Lactalis, my employer at the time and my best sponsor, I prepared for the competition... and I won! And to be honest, afterward, my only fear was changing. It took me almost two years to dare to wear a MOF jacket! But it's not easy: when you're a Meilleur Ouvrier de France, you carry something, you change in the eyes of people. Now, with over 15 years of hindsight and some analysis on this, I would say, to quote a great chef: "you don't become a MOF, you grow into one." Today, my mission is mainly to spread the good word around the world and to be a bit of a custodian of this cheese-making know-how, and it's true that the MOF collar gives much more credibility to do so. That's how it is: when you wear the collar, at least you're taken seriously...![Portrait of Xavier Thuret.](/-/media/Project/Comexposium-Master1/Master1-fromage/actu---fromage/actu-anglais/image-newsroom-xavier-min.jpg?h=555&iar=0&w=555&rev=a5c43cfe0cc64e54bb785aacea77d9b1&hash=D3C9F5291E970F583006E0F6A5E6DF82)