Jamie Oliver, the cheeky chap known for his culinary prowess and penchant for getting his kit off in the kitchen (hence the “Naked Chef” moniker), has found himself embroiled in a cheese-related escapade that’s more “Wallace & Gromit” than “MasterChef.
It, seems that an extraordinary cheese enthusiast, a fromage filcher of the highest order has vanished with nearly 1,000 wheels of award-winning cheddar, worth a whopping £300,000! That’s enough cheese to build a life-sized replica of Big Ben, or to keep a small village in cheese toasties for a year!
Now, Jamie Oliver, never one to shy away from a good cause (especially when it involves delicious food), has taken to Instagram to rally his 10.5 million followers. To keep their peepers peeled for any dodgy blokes flogging lorry loads of posh cheddar on the cheap. If the deal seems too gouda to be true, it probably is! As reported by apnews,nearly 1,000 wheels of cloth-wrapped artisanal cheddar were swiped from Neal’s Yard Dairy by a con artist posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer, before you could say “Stilton,” the cheese was gone, the company realized it had been scammed and reported the theft Oct. 21.
Scotland Yard is on the case, of course, but they’re baffled. “It’s the biggest cheese heist we’ve ever seen,” admitted Detective Inspector Cheddar (no relation). “We’re following a trail of crumbs, but it keeps leading us to pizza parlors and sandwich shops.”
The cheeses were from three makers: Hafod Welsh organic cheddar, Westcombe cheddar, and Pitchfork cheddar.
Neal’s Yard Dairy, a distributor, wholesaler, and retailer of British artisanal cheese, has asked international cheesemongers to be on the lookout for the stolen cheese, particularly in 10-kilogram (22-pound) and 24-kilogram (52-pound) blocks.
“If anyone hears anything about posh cheese going for cheap, it’s probably some wrong’uns,” Oliver said.
