Formaje, the chicest cheese shop in the world

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We don’t tend to think of Stichelton and brie as chic, but such is the power of influencer, activist and fashion plate Clara Diez. Her Madrid-based cheese shop, Formaje, has garnered a global following for its beautifully styled interiors and elegant displays. Earth-coloured tiles line the walls of the store, which is located on a street in Almagro in the centre of the city, and dark wood shelves house wheel upon wheel of cheese. In the centre, a long granite counter is stacked like a mountain range with rounds and wedges of all shapes and sizes, with washed and natural rinds, some flecked with mould, some pure, creamy yellow.

For all of the design details, Diez has preserved a farm-shop atmosphere in the space. The temperature is kept at around 12ºC and humidity levels at 80 per cent to create an optimum environment for the cheese. Downstairs, there’s a room where tastings and educational classes are held, including on how to correctly cut each variety to best taste the different textures. “Cheesemaking is a very humble activity,” says Diez. “It always happens in the countryside, in the farms, close to the animals, so we want to keep that feeling in the shop. It’s not a museum, but a place that invites the customer to connect with the cheese.”

Diez has worked with cheese for more than 10 years. She got into the trade while studying media communication at university, when a family friend implored her to be part of his new company selling artisan varieties from across the country. “There have always been small producers and artisan makers, but at that time there was not an artisan cheese movement in Spain, it was all very new and small. I started working with these producers and forming close relationships with the cheesemakers themselves.” It was with her husband, Adrián Pellejo, that she opened Formaje in 2020. The idea was to bring the finest cheeses in the world to Spanish customers. “Those that represent the best artisan cheesemaking practices of our times,” says Pellejo.

Today, traditional principles drive the offering at Formaje, where they favour old methods over industrial ones. “We want to keep alive the processes that belong to every different space and territory, and we want to bring to the customer the greatest selection,” says Diez. That includes sourcing lesser-known varieties from small makers, such as savel, a blue cheese made in Galicia with milk from free-range Jersey cows, produced by three childhood friends. It also includes finding the best versions of the classics: small-batch gouda (€9.50 for 250g) made in the Netherlands by Betty and Martin Koster, who developed their own recipes to counteract the mass-industrialisation of the variety; camembert (€12 each) from Normandy made by Patrick and Francine Mercier, who use milk from their herd of 90 Normande cows; and cheddar (€14.70 for 250g) from Todd and Maugan Trethowan in Somerset. “There are only three producers in England that make cheddar using the original recipe, and that’s the cheddar we offer,” says Diez.

Alongside cheese, Formaje has a curation of complementary produce such as Santa Teresa quince paste from Ávila, pan de crystal crackers from Seville and wine such as Cantayano from La Seca and Sílice by maker Fredi Torres – “things that people would usually search for when they are preparing a cheeseboard”, she says.

The focus on localised, small-batch production is part of Diez’s activism. She wants to educate consumers on how their decisions can impact the environment. “I’m very interested in regenerative agriculture and methodology that puts attention on how different aspects affect the landscape – the temperature, the different seasons, the soil and how the animals interact with it, in a way that is good for both the soil and the animals.” Diez gives the example of one of her older producers who refuses to use industrial soap and bleach to clean the tools she uses to make cheese, because they can be too aggressive for the process. “Cheese is one of the most complex foods in terms of taste, and it’s essential to maintain the native bacteriology of natural environments.”

Formaje’s overarching ambition is to prove cheesemaking isn’t an old-fashioned, fusty practice. “We want to create a new language so that the public begins to perceive cheese as a noble, elevated product, full of elegance and beauty,” says Pellejo.