Swapping paneer for pecorino: India gets taste for European cheeses

Artisan producers have begun to emerge and demand for cheese platters has gone ballistic'

It was one day during the Covid-19 lockdown last year that Namrata Sundaresan's phone began ringing non-stop. Sundaresan, the co-founder of Kase, the only artisan cheesemaker in the southern Indian city of Chennai, was bemused by the avalanche of requests for one thing: pecorino cheese.

I had 20 people call me and ask for pecorino," she said. I was really surprised because pecorino is not something that a lot of people in India know about." It turned out a video featuring the Italian pasta dish cacio e pepe was going viral on social media and WhatsApp. Suddenly people across the country wanted to get their hands on some Italian-style hard cheese. This would have been unthinkable two years ago," said Sundaresan.