A French visitor in Australia recently caused an online stir after boldly declaring that the Aussie supermarket versions of ‘Brie and Camembert are exactly the same cheese’.
Now, Leo Filipetti is back with another assessment of a widely adored Australian supermarket cheese brand – only his response was not what people expected.
Holding up a packet of the hugely popular Mersey Valley Pickled Onions cheese, the French comedian started off with an ominous statement.
‘As a French guy, this Aussie supermarket cheese should be illegal,’ Leo said in a recent video.
After analysing the brand name – pondering aloud if it was an Aussie attempt at the French word for thank you (“Merci”) – Leo set about opening the package to give it a try.
‘It doesn’t smell much,’ he initially observed. ‘To me, I want my cheese to smell so much the neighbours will call triple zero because they think somebody passed away.’
However, everything changed for the European comedian the moment he popped a piece of the cheese into his mouth.
‘Forget everything I said about French cheese [being better],’ he excitedly proclaimed. ‘This is the real deal, guys.’
Frenchman Leo Filipetti has once again analysed Aussie supermarket cheeses in an Instagram video, this time taste testing the hugely popular Mersey Valley Pickled Onions cheddar cheese
To his utter surprise, the French comedian absolutely loved the Mersey Valley cheese variety, declaring: ‘Cheap cheddar is the new French cheese.’
Instantly won over by the Australian supermarket buy, Leo declared: ‘Cheap cheddar is the new French cheese.’
Leo, who is currently touring his comedy show around Melbourne and Sydney, laughingly added at the end of the video: ‘I don’t think I can go back to France after saying this.’
Mersey Valley Pickled Onions club cheddar vintage cheese is sold at the two major Australian supermarkets, with the 235g block priced at $9.90 and the 80g block at $4.80.
Aussie fans of the sharp and crumbly cheese brand were ecstatic that Leo had given the supermarket buy his stamp of approval.
‘Mersey Valley is the bomb,’ read one reply.
‘Awesome to get the approval. I’m a huge fan of this cheese!’ added another.
Australian comedian and TV personality Matt Okine also chimed in, replying: ‘This stuff is my go-to all day every day.’
Even someone now living in France agreed they were missing this particular cheese variety – despite residing in the cheese capital of the world.
Mersey Valley Pickled Onions club cheddar vintage cheese is sold at the two major Australian supermarkets, with the 235g block priced at $9.90 and the 80g block at $4.80
‘I’ve been living in Paris for 20 years and I miss Mersey Valley Pickled Onions more than my family,’ they joked.
However, many replies were simply relieved that Leo’s video didn’t hate on their favourite cheese flavour – especially given the foreboding tone at the start of his social media post.
‘I thought you were going to say something negative about Mersey Valley. I was going to protest. You recovered well,’ laughed one reply.
‘I was about to take it personally,’ agreed another.
‘I was the same. Sitting here like, “Don’t you f***ing dare”. Then by the end I was like, “You bloody legend”. What a rollercoaster ride of emotion.’
A few responses to the post shared to his @leofilipetti Instagram account were quick to point out that Mersey Valley cheese is a top tier supermarket variety.
‘That is not cheap cheddar,’ read one reply. ‘I’m sorry to say you’ve started at the top in Australia and it’s all downhill from here.’
‘I call it “middle-class heroin”,’ laughed another.
Meanwhile, Mersey Valley fans urged Leo to try some of the brand’s other popular cheddar varieties.
‘Their Ploughmans is even better,’ read one reply.
‘The Jalapeno one is elite,’ claimed another cheese fan.
‘I think the Salt & Vinegar is the GOAT of Mersey,’ said a third.
Leo’s latest Aussie cheese analysis included a call out for suggestions on other Australian supermarket brands he should taste test, with the replies including repeated recommendations to try Meredith Dairy Marinated Goat Cheese and King Island Point Smoked Cheddar.
Leo, who has spent the past year in Australia, caused a stir earlier this month when he declared in a now-viral video that he believed Australian supermarket varieties of Brie and Camembert are one and the same.
‘They just change the packaging, but it tastes the same, it’s the same cheese,’ he alleged in his video.
Daily Mail previously spoke to Leo, who explained that his curiosity about the similarity between Australian Brie and Camembert came after tasting both back-to-back.
French comedian Leo Filipetti shared his bold theory about Aussie white-mould cheeses in a video shared to his @leofilipetti Instagram account
‘In France, the Camembert is more intense and savoury than Brie,’ he observed.
‘But in Australia, these cheeses are milder than in France.’
Leo said his fascination even led him to search for answers by visiting an unnamed Aussie dairy farm. Although they didn’t specify particular brands, he said he was told there ‘that both cheeses are produced using the same process’.
‘They’re made using pasteurised white-mould cheeses with similar creamy textures.’
Daily Mail spoke to RMIT University Professor Jayani Chandrapala about the suggestion that Brie and Camembert are essentially the same cheese in Australia.
The Head & Associate Dean of the Department of Food Technology & Nutrition agreed the two cheeses are ‘mostly produced using the same ingredients’, but pointed out the ‘processing conditions’ tend to differ.
‘Both types use pasteurised milk and the same lactic acid bacteria to acidify the milk and to develop flavour. They both use rennet for milk coagulation, Penicillium fungus to produce the mouldy rind, and then salt,’ she explained.
French tourist Leo made the bold claim that Australian produced varieties of Brie (left) and Camembert (right) are ‘the same cheese’
‘In Australia, more cream might be added to Brie to get a richer, creamier texture,’ she said, adding that Brie usually also undergoes a ‘shorter ageing process’.
RMIT University Professor Jayani Chandrapala, Head & Associate Dean of the Department of Food Technology & Nutrition
‘Overall, the fat content and ageing process are what make the difference between the two cheese types when made in Australia.’
Globally renowned professional cheese expert Ivan Larcher also spoke to Daily Mail about why the two cheese types tend to taste similar in Australia.
The Frenchman – fondly known in the industry as the ‘cheese doctor’ – has worked with many prominent cheesemakers worldwide and in Australia; he founded and works closely with premier Victorian cheesemakers and educators, Long Paddock Cheese.
Ivan emphasised that strictly speaking, ‘there is no legal classification or definition of what a “Brie” or “Camembert” cheese must be’.
‘Both are generic names,’ he explained. ‘You could theoretically make any kind of cheese and label it as a “Brie” or “Camembert”.’
As a result, he notes that when countries outside France label their cheeses as ‘Brie’ or ‘Camembert’, it’s essentially used as a marketing tool, and is not necessarily reflective of the characteristics or production methods involved in producing the cheese.
‘Bloomy Soft Cheese manufacturers in Australia are selling a name rather than a product, leading to such confusion,’ he added.
Globally renowned professional cheese expert Ivan Larcher explained why there’s a tendency for similarly tasting cheeses to be labelled as both ‘Brie’ and ‘Camembert’ in Australia
Long Paddock Cheese ditched using labels like ‘Brie’ and ‘Camembert’ for their Aussie-produced white bloomy cheese, instead calling their variety ‘Flannel Flower’ cheese
Ivan lamented that in Australia, many cheeses are ‘the same white, tasteless, boring, predictable gummy dairy protein foodstuff, sold either under the name of Brie or Camembert’.
He noted that adding ‘a bunch of cream into the cheese to make it an ‘oozy creamy cheese’ was usually the only main difference between the types.
‘They have fundamentally the same base but different names.’
So, in his work with Long Paddock Cheese, Ivan directed the brand to ditch using labels like Brie and Camembert for their white bloomy cheese – because it isn’t a French-made cheese. Instead, Long Paddock Cheese call its own localised white bloomy cheese variety ‘Flannel Flower’ cheese.
