Five minutes into our conversation and he says, waving his hands in the air, “Everything is possible in Nepal.” It is certainly Francois Driard’s experience speaking. The Frenchman has been an entrepreneur in Nepal for the last eight years, picking up, in the process, the sobriquet of being the man who introduced high-end French cheese to the Himalayan nation.
But, much before he set up Himalayan French Cheese, Francois felt, “Everything is possible in Nepal.” In fact, his is a beautiful story, rather a love story with Nepal, propelled by this thought.
The Parisian, before deciding to settle down in Nepal in 2007, visited it annually for 18 years, attracted by its natural beauty, the nonchalance of the Nepalis and that “time has a different meaning for them”. He also learnt to speak Nepali.
“I have a degree from a business school in France but I didn’t want to do business. So I began writing business articles. But I didn’t want to work in an office environment either. So I thought, what then,” recalls Francois. His heart told him to go back to Nepal but what will he do there for a living? A typical Frenchman in love with his cheese, wine and bread, Francois knew he would get it all in Kathmandu except that smelly cheese he loved eating in Paris. The next thought turned out to be revolutionary — for him, for Nepal too.
“In a whim I thought why not make cheese for a living. But I had no idea how to make cheese,” says Francois over a cup of coffee at Kathmandu’s Shangri-La hotel, one of his clients now.
Then began a frantic hunt to take cheese making lessons.
A man in a hurry to pick up an art which takes years to master, Francois nevertheless went about knocking the doors of cheese makers in France and managed to pick up the basics in a few weeks time. Nepal being a country with poor infrastructure, he opted for the French traditional method of cheese making.
“Since I was to make cheese in faraway Nepal, French cheese makers didn’t mind teaching me. There was competition. Also, they loved the idea that I would be making cheese the traditional way,” says Francois.
He then went about getting his business visa for Nepal, bought a car, secured a driving license, joined hands with three Nepalis and bought a piece of land on lease in Dhulikhel, an hour’s drive from Kathmandu. The production began but getting a market for French cheese was a struggle.
“The Swiss introduced the Nepalis to hard yak cheese in the 1950s. The milk is skimmed to produce it. They thought of hard cheese because it is easier to conserve it and transport it across Nepal on the back of sherpas. But in terms of taste, it is not interesting. I began making cheese from full fat milk, they are delicate and I couldn’t sell them easily.”
With more and more standalone restaurants specialising in European cuisine in Kathmandu and also the city five stars getting an option to procure quality cheese locally, better days have dawned on him. Presently, Francois has 20 cows and employs 10 people in his farm. “I have five cheese makers and two cheese masters,” he says. Himalayan Cheese now produces eight kinds of cheese including tomme, camembert, brie, St. Marcelin and ricotta.
Next up on his to-do list is exporting cheese. “Next stop is India. It has a huge market. With the wine market growing there, the market for cheese looks interesting,” he says.
Having given Nepal a French connection, Francois is also focussing on giving the world a Nepal connection through cheese. “I have set up a farm further up in the mountains. The plan is to produce high fat yak cheese. The world has not seen high end yak cheese yet,” he says.
Like in Paris, Francois enjoys his Frenchness in Nepal too, as planned, with wine, bread and that smelly cheese he is so used to. Before we end our conversation, he says with a laugh, “Of course I miss oysters but in Nepal I can’t think of producing it.”
Well, the mountain resident now must learn to leave some things for a sea-sider to do!
