ROQUEFORT, KING OF CHEESE, CHEESE OF KINGS.
"On its rock, Roquefort is one of the capitals of world gastronomy in a strange and uniquely picturesque site", wrote Curnonsky, the prince of gastronomes.
It is also said that Julius Caesar would have tasted and appreciated a blue cheese tasted in the region of Roquefort, and finally that the bishop of Albi served a marbled cheese to Charlemagne returning from Spain.
As for the "official" legend, it would be a womanizing shepherd who forgot a piece of sheep's cheese in a cave in the Combalou mountain. This then turned into Roquefort thanks to Penicillium roqueforti.
All these stories or legends teach us at least one thing: it is that sheep's cheese has been made for a very long time on the Larzac plateau.
It was at the turn of the year 1000 (around 1060) that we find the first written mention of Roquefort in a cartulary of the abbey of Conques.
Charles VI then granted the first protection to Roquefort, a text confirmed by his son Charles VII in 1407.
Since then, from charter to charter, from king to emperor, from Empire to Republic, Roquefort has seen its recognition confirmed.
Diderot awarded him the title of "king of cheeses".
Cheese crossed borders very early on, and oceans from the 18th century. Thus, he accompanies the Rouergat volunteers engaged alongside the Auvergnat Lafayette in the War of Independence of the United States.
The modern history of Roquefort began in 1925. It became the first cheese to obtain a controlled designation of origin.
