Cheesemaker Mike set for ‘grater’ success

Founder of Mike’s Fancy Cheese in Newtownards, he produces the multi-award winning Young Buck blue cheese and is focusing on his retail business here to help offset the pausing of his longstanding sales to many of Ireland’s top chefs.

He’s introduced a doorstep delivery service for his own multi-award winning and handcrafted cheese and some other artisan products in Ireland to customers especially in counties Antrim and Down.

His small cheese shop in Belfast’s Little Donegall Street has also been impacted by the shortage of shoppers due to the lockdown.

“There’s no realistic alternative to reaching out to customers and making it as easy as possible for them to enjoy our cheese,” he explains.

“We’ve created a range of hampers with our cheese and those from other artisan producers along with accompanying foods such as sourdough loaves from the Grateful Bread in Belfast, Abernethy Butter from Dromara, Potrush’s Irish Black Butter and Clandeboye Yoghurt made on Clandeboye Estate in Bangor,” adds the affable entrepreneur.

As well as the popularity of his delicious Young Buck blue, launched in 2013, with leading restaurants, a loyal support base has developed among cheese lovers of his raw milk cheese here and further afield. He sources fresh milk from a farm near his small creamery outside Newtownards. While he remains the principal cheesemaker, there are now four other people employed in the craft business, a key supplier to delis and specialist stores, as well as the Belfast shop.

“The shop is very important to the business because it helps us build and nurture relationships with our customers, enables us to explain why our cheese is constantly changing and to offer them opportunities to sample the product,” he continues. “Our Young Buck cheese is an unpasteurised ‘stilton style’ that is matured for a minimum of 12 weeks using milk by Smith McCann’s herd of 150 Holstein Friesian cows near Newtownards in the Craigantlet Hills.”

The company, he explains, is “taking the current Covid-19 crisis extremely seriously, both in our shop and with all our deliveries”. “Each order is placed in a safe space within a customer’s door way. We ask them to provide a safe and dry space especially if they aren’t going to be in on the day chosen for delivery,” he adds.

In addition to his success in Northern Ireland with the fine cheese, Mike sells it to specialists in Britain and exports to Ireland, France and Germany.

He “caught the cheese-making bug” working behind the counter at the respected Arcadia deli on Belfast’s Lisburn Road. This whetted his appetite for good cheese and encouraged him to learn more by enrolling at the School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire. He then worked in cheese production at the respected Sparkenhoe Farm in Leicestershire, a specialist in Stilton, for a year, before returning home to start making his own cheese under the quirky Young Buck brand. Another influence in setting up the business was the absence of “any good small scale farmhouse/artisan raw-milk cheese in Northern Ireland back then”.

His mission is “to make the best cheese possible and have fun running the business”. He’s clearly passionate about Young Buck and other artisan cheeses and enjoys everything about it.

He’s at the forefront of the small batch cheese revival here that now includes Ballylisk cheese in Portadown, Dart Mountain in Dungiven, Kearney Blue in Castlereagh and Velocheese in Belfast.

He opened the small cheese shop as part of his drive to increase awareness of Young Buck among local people. This marketing approach has included beer and cheese evenings. These events, of course, have fallen victim to the coronavirus lockdowns.

He’s described the shop, opened in November 2018, as a “dream come true”. “I’ve always wanted to open a specialist cheese shop for my Young Buck and other Irish cheeses,” he says. He chose premises close to the developing Ulster University campus and had been developing good business with staff and students before the virus struck. It also paused food markets which he attended here.

“The shop is all about spreading the love of raw milk cheeses”, he continues. “I was able to put into practice experience gained about running a gourmet food shop with Willie and Mark Brown at the Arcadia. I learned a tremendous amount, in particular, about the importance of customer service.

“And it’s a commitment that underpins the launch of our doorstep delivery service,” he adds.

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