🧀 Ile de France Camembert

Ile de France Camembert is the camembert of Ile de France, the international brand under which the French group Savencia sells its cheeses abroad. The brand is named after the ocean liner Ile de France, on which French cheeses crossed the Atlantic in the 1930s.

According to the brand, the range comes in two formats. The 250 g camembert is made at Ducey-les-Chéris in Normandy, the home region of camembert. The smaller Petit Camembert, weighing 125 g, is made at Servas and is handy for one or two servings. Both are soft cow's milk cheeses with a white bloomy rind and a creamy paste that becomes softer and more pronounced in flavour as it ripens.

It is a branded camembert, not the protected Camembert de Normandie. Alongside it the brand offers the related Ile de France Brie range, as well as blue and goat's cheeses.

How to use it: serve it on a cheese board with baguette, apples or nuts, add it to sandwiches, or bake it whole in the oven until it runs. Leave it at room temperature for about half an hour before serving, and keep it in the fridge in its original wrapping.