Hello Norway! Exploring Cheese with Bo Jensen
"Hi. What are you doing? What did you think of this cheese?"
It is 3:17 in the morning and I roll over to see a message from Bo on my phone. This isn't unusual though. I am used to him reaching out to me at all hours of the day ready to discuss cheese. I myself have had a nomadic and owlish life the last couple of years and find a bit of solace in his similar nature. As we chat, I lose myself in the bizarre fact that I’m awake at the Witching Hour talking about cheese to someone almost 4,000 miles away from me. We are lost in the moment of real happiness.
Bo Jensen - Army of One
I first met Bo Jensen in Paris in the late Spring of 2018. Originally from Denmark, he relocated to Sandnes, Norway working as a pastry chef. Focus was quickly shifted to cheesemaking as it stirred some of his deeper passions and creative impulses. In the last five years Jensen has gone from novice cheesemaker to crafting award-winning cheeses that have made their way to private tastings with world-class chefs such as Clare Smyth and Guy Savoy. Jensen is an army of one, running all aspects of his production including traveling the world to hand-deliver his cheeses in person. Jensen has an extremely frenzied personality, very quirky and highly alert...a living energizer bunny. This is the kind of person that thinks four hours of sleep is normal and is OCD to the point where you can't tell if even they find their own tendencies to be too intense. I find it absolutely marvelous. This is the kind of nature it takes to merge work ethos and creative brilliance to make true art. Every piece of cheese that Jensen makes is a testament to this. Little did I know at the time that I would forge a friendship with him that would cultivate my visit to Norway to further my journeys as The Cheese Maven.
I arrive in Stavanger, a city on the Southwestern coast of Norway. Bo picks me up from the airport, huge grin and hugs all ready to go for me. "Finally" he says to me. "Are you ready?" It is the very end of September, just in time for the last milking of the goats for the season. The timing couldn't have worked out better. Norway is alive with color, with vast sprawling meadows and forests dotting the ridges of misty mountains in the background as we drive through the countryside. Herds of cows and sheep grazing nearby, the sun peaking-through to shine on the fields to show us shades of emerald I've never seen. Jensen is explaining to me that part of the reason he chose this region of Norway is because of the purity and the isolation.
Brieyoncé in Norway!
A typical morning sees Jensen up at 4am to drive to the farmland in Undheim to collect milk from 100 Norwegian goats. His facility is tiny – clocking in at just 14m2. Our first day making cheese was a whirlwind. Bo was jumping around everywhere, seemingly using six hands instead of the two he was born with. We made three different types of cheese: Snøball, Pyramiden, and perhaps his most recognized creation Lille Aske. This process involved scooping freshly coagulated goat curd into different molds, draining, and salting before prepping them to be aged for the next 3-6 weeks. While waiting for the newly made cheeses to set, we turned our attention to cheeses made from the previous day. This batch was treated by covering each cheese with ash which is an old tradition from French cheesemaking. This technique is used to balance the acidity of the cheese, to serve as a protectant during aging, as well as a tool to develop that particularly lovely moonlit color associated with ash-ripened goat cheeses such as Selles-sur-Cher and Wabash Cannonball. What a wonderful first day to what would be a weekend of cheesemaking. I've spent the last few years having made cheese with several producers across the world, but this was the first time I've ever seen this kind of work ethic and methodology. Jensen is a dynamo and I constantly felt his energy spiking and his need to control and create exploding. Although there are many stresses to running a business independently it is a welcome challenge that has fulfilled him deeply.
Lille Aske - Aged 1 Day
Lille Aske - Aged 1 Week
Pyramiden
Primarily sold in Norway, Jensen’s cheeses are starting to make a mark in other parts of the world. His cheese can now be found in Paris! It is sold at COW (Cheeses of the World) located at 30 Boulevard Saint- Germain. And hopefully soon, the United States can get a taste of his cheeses as well.
