Ivan Larcher

Cheesemakers throughout the UK and elsewhere seek Ivan out regularly for both training and consulting. His services are in huge demand across the cheese world, and he is widely regarded as the best in his field of expertise, artisan dairy. He has had a huge impact on the benefit of farmhouse and artisan cheesemaking around the world, including in the UK where he has consulted many cheesemakers and cheese institutions like Neal’s Yard Dairy, as well as for many years teaching professional cheesemaking at The School of Artisan Food.

Ivan is, however, not just a teacher and consultant - he is a master cheesemaker. After several years of working as a cheesemaker for and consulting to various farmhouse and artisan cheese facilities in France and elsewhere, he and Julie set up and ran “Ferme de l’Or Blanc”, their own farmhouse cheesemaking business in Limousin, France, managing a herd of 18 Jersey cows, with the production of yoghurts, butter, crème fraîche, lactic, bloomy and washed rind soft cheeses, blue-veined cheeses, semi-hard and hard-cooked cheeses, with direct sales to local farmers’ markets. This enabled him to apply his extensive dairy technical skills directly to his own farmhouse dairy.

“Ivan Larcher has travelled the planet and provided technical programs and services for producers worldwide. In so doing he has accumulated a breadth of experience we believe is singular and without equivalence. His professionalism, specialized skill set, ability to communicate and high level of organization and breadth of knowledge and experience is extremely rare. …It is not an exaggeration to say that he is more sought-after globally for his skills than any other cheese expert in the world.’ Mateo Kehler, founder and head cheesemaker, Jasper Hill Farm, Vermont, US