Cheese on menu as leaders try to solve crisis
Goat’s cheese was on the menu as the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries gathered for a formal dinner in London this week to chew over ways to solve the financial crisis.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver added the cheese as a vegetarian option in a meal prepared for leaders of the G-20 nations, including U.S. President Barack Obama.
The cheese in question was Childwickbury, the eponymous produce of a farm near St. Albans, just north of London, described by those who have tried it as “delicately flavoured”.
According to 10 Downing Street, the cheese was available as an alternative to the smoked salmon starter, and was to be served with roast shallots, seashore vegetables, herb green salad and wild garlic-scented Irish soda bread.
What wasn’t clear is how many of the the leaders, in London to try and thrash out ways to save the world from financial chaos, would be tucking into the cheese.
Of all those gathered, among them British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and China’s Hu Jintao, the only vegetarian leader identified was Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Given that Singh underwent heart bypass surgery in February, perhaps he might prefer to tactfully hide his cheese under his seashore vegetables.