About Rhuaridh
How did you first discover your enthusiasm for food?
I grew up in Aberdeen in a family obsessed with food, we always ate well at home and in restaurants, and I was fortunate enough to travel a lot. My mum used to treat me to different cheeses she would pick up from the local deli, so cheese was always a favourite snack of mine as a child. So I guess from an early age I was developing an interest in nice food. I learned to cook in my teens and worked in a local hotel as pot-washer and prep chef before moving to front of house.
What was your route into the world of cheese?
After studying Industrial Design at university I returned to hospitality in a more serious manner, and in my role as restaurant manager at Martin Wishart, I was given responsibility of the cheese trolley. I guess you could almost say that the rest is history! I got to know Iain and Karen Mellis who supplied the cheese and went to work with them in Edinburgh where they taught me the basics of ageing cheese in their maturing rooms. Then I came down to London in what was supposed to be a temporary move before taking up a job at Per Se in New York. I was working at Paxton and Whitfield and ended up staying and doing a year’s traineeship, including a cheesemaking course and work placements with cheesemakers and with Marie-Anne Cantin, an esteemed affineur in Paris. I went on to become general manager of Paxton & Whitfield where I spent most of a decade running their London operations. I was a judge for the Young Chef Young Waiter competition and I regularly judge for the Great Taste Awards and World Cheese Awards. I had always wanted to start my own business and in 2014 I combined my love of both cheese and hospitality by starting Buchanans Cheesemonger.
What do you love about being a cheesemonger?
I was (and still am) captivated by cheese as a product. It’s such a pleasing food that changes daily and you can have an effect on its outcome depending on how you treat it. Also, meeting the people involved in its production is always a joy and I love being a part of sharing their infectious passion. I was always interested in developing a wholesale business because it allowed me to keep that link with restaurants and to use and share my knowledge gained from working in them. When I first moved to London it was at a time when excellent cheese was mostly only found in the best fine dining restaurants, so bringing it to more customers and sharing my excitement for it with them was hugely satisfying.
