Brie, butter, baguette a delicious-sounding alliteration and proof that a few simple ingredients can come together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Like the brie and butter sandwich scene from cult TV show Twin Peaks, it’s a classic sandwich that lives up to the hype, even if it’s just fat and carbs. To brie or not to brie, there is no question. It’s little wonder that brie is one of the world’s most manufactured soft cheeses. It is a big extended family, recognisable by downy white rinds. The trick is finding the good ones: pass over any tasteless and forgettable hockey-puck cheeses, as your brie and butter on a baguette sandwich deserves more oomph. Farmhouse Brie came about more than 30 years ago largely by accident. In the search for more oomph, Colleen Dennison, the founder of Evansdale Cheese – the oldest small cheese factory in New Zealand – put a cracked cheese into a plastic bag to stop it from drying out. It created a cave in which the cheese could thrive and find itself. While it’s not a method of maturation that Colleen invented, you have to appreciate this was at a time before the internet and when no imported cheeses were on New Zealand shelves to compare to. It was pioneering number-eight wire stuff in the pursuit of new New Zealand-made flavours. Over time, Colleen and the team continued to refine and develop the maturation of these early cheeses and, while the plastic bags are now gone, all the knowledge gained continues with this iconic traditional New Zealand cheese today. Squishy and curvy, Evansdale Farmhouse Brie is soft with oozing voluptuous love handles. I like to leave mine to mature further – in a plastic bag of course – for full unctuous, mushroomy, gooey oomph potential. Balance the best damn sandwich I ever ate with a sparkling white.

CALUM HODGSON – THE CURD NERD