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Grated Camembert! Who said the French were stuck in their ways?

The Local France
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Grated Camembert! Who said the French were stuck in their ways?
Photo: AFP/AB Technologies

A food company from Brittany has come up with an inventive product that gives a new twist to one of the country's most sacred cheeses. But will the French turn their noses up at it?

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It seems more like something you'd find on the shelves of a Tesco supermarket in the UK  - the home of the straight croissant - rather than something the French would actually invent themselves. 
 
But on Tuesday an industrial food company from Brittany, in northern France unveiled a new way of serving up one of France's softest and smelliest cheeses.
 
Grated Camembert. Will the French ever swallow it?
 
It took Breton company AB Technologies Alimentaires six months to come up with the winning formula before they succeeded.
 
The reason it took so long was that they needed to come up with a way of hardening the soft cheese to be able to grate it without ruining the flavour. 
 
 
 
But why do it all, you might ask. 
 
"Today, the range of grated cheese is quite limited," the company's marketing manager Françoise Chauvel told French newspaper l'Ouest France. 
 
"Emmental, Cantal ... We wanted to offer something else and thought about Camembert. "
 
And according to the company, the cheese has multiple uses and can be used to grate on pasta, pizza or in sauces. They want to initially aim it at companies and those working in the food industry but will also sell it to the public in supermarkets if there proves to be a demand.
 
But many French Twitter users turned their noses up at the thought of grated Camembert.
 
"I just don't know what use it would have," said one while another said "only the industrially produced fake Camembert cheeses will be able to be grated".
 
However one tweeter praised the inventiveness of those in Brittany.
 
"Bretons have invented grated Camembert. One day they will rule the world," said the tweeter.
 
But no doubt there will be cries of heresy from the neighbouring region of Normandy, which is home of the original Camembert.
 
“The Normans have pinched the Mont-Saint-Michel, so today we are stealing Camembert from them – in a grated version,” she said, referring to the fact that the famous abbey has been officially deemed to be in Normandy, despite Brittany's claims that it belongs to them. 
 
While the cheese is aimed at industrial food producers, the firm is open to the idea of selling it to the public if there is demand.
 
READ ALSO:
 
Fears in France that Camembert truce will lead to cheese ruin
 
 

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