Cheesy chats: Penny’s Cheese Shop

We chat with Penny of Penny’s Cheese Shop, located in Pott's Point, Sydney. She has built a one-stop-cheese-shop focused on highlighting the very best handmade and farmhouse cheeses from local and international producers.

Image by Jiwon Kim via Broadsheet.com

Tell us your Milawa Cheese story:

I would not be in the cheese business if it weren’t for Milawa Cheese… It’s their fault! I went for a job running their shop in Carlton North, and I hounded them until they gave it to me. They brought me into the fold and made me an honorary daughter/sister. I knew nothing about cheese before I started, but they introduced me to the curd and I have not looked back. There’s not a cheese ball I’ve missed in 17 years! I still feel like I’m home when I get to the crossroads at Milawa or when I taste King River Gold. I am one of the select few that have been into the Blue maturation room… Stepping through from where the Milawa Gold used to ripen…that transports me. Milawa Cheese Company & the Brown family changed my life.

Favourite Milawa Cheese & why?

Ooooh, almost as hard to answer as what is my favourite cheese. But… if pushed Aged Milawa Blue, I’ve proposed to it before. I call it my Fiancé!

Biggest regret?

When given the opportunity to name a cheese I didn’t name it Penny…. If you are lucky enough to try it Milawa Markwood is pretty gosh-darn delicious, but it might taste better if it were called Milawa Penelope haha!

Thanks for the chat, Penny!