In 1983 Robert Pouget and a friend Gerry Stevens, joined up to open a cheese shop in Oxford’s covered market.

They were an unlikely pair to go into such a venture, as Robert Pouget was an artist and furniture designer, and Gerry Stevens was the manager of several pop groups.

The Cheese shop was an instant hit in Oxford: at the time there were very few specialist cheese shops, and it proved to be a welcome novelty.

In 1986 Robert Pouget formed the Oxford cheese company which took over the cheese shop in Oxford’s Covered Market and began to wholesale English and continental cheese to Oxford colleges and city restaurants.

Meanwhile a parallel operation was started producing and marketing vegetarian food from a production kitchen in Oxford City

In 1995 Robert Pouget began production of Oxford Blue a cheese in the tradition of Stilton (it was produced in a Stilton dairy) but with a creamier consistency especially when the cheese was allowed to mature.

Oxford Blue has become one of the most popular blue cheeses in England and is widely available on sale at good independent food retailers.

The oxford cheese company’s brands expanded, to include, Oxford Isis and Oxford Sauce. Later on, the Oxford Provender range of chutneys and jams was launched, all produced in the company’s Oxford City production kitchen.

Along -side this operation, William Pouget started up the Alphabar whole- food take- away and later the Vaults and Gardens Cafe in Radcliffe square, Oxford.

The company is consolidating its production and expanding its retail outlets. Its main goal is to produce an excellent range of vegetarian products and open new vegetarian delis.

Baron Pouget

The man who created Oxford Blue in 1994, the first of the semi soft blue cheeses to come onto the market after the dismal failure of Lymesworld in the previous decade.

Baron Pouget divides his time between Oxford, where his production and distribution business is based and Cornwall, where he devotes his time to painting.

Always interested and involved in film making he is currently working on a new documentary, an update on “Paying the Price”.