Almost everyone in Hong Kong knows Laughing Cow: the grinning red cow on a round blue-and-white box, packed with foil-wrapped triangles of soft, tangy cheese with an unmistakably artificial plastic sheen. Surprisingly, it’s also beloved in France, the land of strict appellations and strong opinions on dairy.
“It’s just a thing I started. And then it became, ‘No, no! Stop!’” He throws his hands up, laughing. “They just kept coming and I didn’t know what to do.” Being friends with a cheesemaker helps. One such friend named Jean François started saving labels for him once he caught wind of the collection. “It spiralled from there.”
Evrard is a self-described “cheese freak”. “I grew up with this dairy obsession. I don’t know why. My parents aren’t in the business. My mother is the worst cook ever,” he chuckles. “She wouldn’t mind me saying it – it’s true.”
He calls his love of cheese “self-built”. Instead of visiting vineyards when he was old enough to drink, he would visit dairy farms. Even so, young Jeremy couldn’t have guessed where his love of cheese, and its packaging, would eventually lead him.
