It still amuses me a little bit to think that so much of my life has been totally devoted to cheese and almost nothing else. The cheese thing, for me, took control when I stopped getting high and focussed on getting high on food and I’m grateful to have collaborated with many cheesemakers over the years and to have helped bring their creative endeavours to market. Farmhouse cheesemakers demonstrate that if you want something real, meaningful and flavourful, you must go and get it with a single-minded devotion. To the dearly devoted, please forgive me for not including Thorvald’s Devotion in this column earlier. Sheep aren’t milked through the winter, so fresh sheep’s milk cheeses are only available in the spring and summer months, which does not marry well with taking photos and meeting publishing deadlines. But this time the team helped make it happen and I’m thankful. Devotion is a sheep’s milk cheese that will please any crowd. A lusciously supple washed rind with a distinct vegetal funkiness that will get your mouth watering, it brims with complex flavour. Not only the star on the cheese platter, Devotion will also totally pimp your potatoes, onions and bacon for a truly indulgent hot and gooey tartiflette experience. Seek out this culinary talisman for the best of the best of New Zealand cheeses – because this cheese life is nothing without obsession. CALUM HODGSON, THE CURD NERD