Brie cheese raw material shortage in France ravages AS fruit & cheese plate
 

On 75 SEA-JNU a few days ago, I received a fruit and cheese plate devoid of the brie cheese wedge. Thinking that perhaps the menu had changed, I fired off an AlaskaListens message inquiring into the situation and received the following reply:

"Thank you for completing our survey regarding your flight. I sincerely apologize that your Signature Fruit and Cheese Platter was missing an essential item: brie cheese. The lack of raw materials in France is causing our provider of Brie for the Cheese Platter to fall behind in production. Extra slices of Tillamook and Beecher’s will be used to fill the gap."

Things must be awfully bad in France for there to be a brie cheese crisis. Anyone know anything about it?

If it means they switch to all Beecher's I'm cool with that. I wish they'd get rid of the Tillamook too.

Neil

Love it
 

"Ravages" the cheese the plate. Oh, the horror! :eek:

Damn, the apple/brie/cracker is my favorite part :(

Google search for "brie shortage france"

First result is this thread.

Second result is this news story: "France breathes sigh of relief as China reopens borders to pungent cheeses". So perhaps the reopening of the Chinese market is to blame for the shortage? ;)

Surprised no one has connected the dots-- this is due to the impending demise of AF partnership! No more french cheese in the F&C plate. It's going to be replaced with a slice of Stilton but there's going to be a sliding fuel surcharge to cover the import costs. Sometimes it'll be a reasonable, other times it'll be a $90 entree.

:p

Yuck!

My flight Sunday had 2 slices of Beacher's, 2 slices of Tillamook and a wedge of Muenster. Thought it strange at the time but now I understand why.

I wish it was all Beecher's cheddar

You should be glad it has not descended into this horror: Wow. United's cheese and crackers in EconPlus is AWFUL!

Honestly they should just get rid of the fruit and crackers too. A giant chunk of Beecher's would do fine.

Neil

While Beecher's is fantastic (why not offer a non-meat meal and use Beecher's Mac and Cheese & fresh fruit?!) the combination of cheese and fruit make both better then they are on their own! I'm fine with Brie being ditched (though I do like a good Brie from time to time) but I still like a combination of cheese and the fruit and crackers :)

Bummer! The Brie is my favorite from the fruit & cheese plate.

TWO times out of BWI I've paid for the Cheese plate to find that Beechers has been subbed out for Monterey Jack. I KID YOU NOT.

Things are going downhill fast.

There's a pretty serious butter shortage in France as well.

+1 I’d trade my Brie in a heartbeat. Not a fan of it.

There's no long-term shortage of anything in a market economy: there's just an unwillingness to pay. Alaska can serve Brie if it wants to.

I just flew back from Europe on Lufthansa and they had plenty of Brie without issue. Maybe it is part of a budding trade war between France and the U.S. or the AF partnership drop. ;)

I love the brie, but it's usually so cold it's almost frozen. Good brie should be room-temperature, or even soft and almost runny. Hmmmm.

If it's replaced with Stilton - another of my favorites - then I'm going to start a petition asking that tawny port be available to accompany it. :)

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e709b9f6b4.jpg
Here! Here! Cheers to you, AKCuisine! I love Stilton with a good tawny.

No Brie? No Loss. Disgusting cheese. My opinion and I'm entitled to it :-D

I wouldn't judge all brie by what you get on AS or any other airline. Go to your nearest cheese monger. Ask about a nice brie de meaux or other regional brie and you'll quickly notice the difference between it and the airline paste. The difference is even more stark if you're in Europe and can get your hands on a raw milk brie. You're welcome :cool:

I am not sure I would totally agree with your statement. Some airlines have a better selection of cheese on presentation than can be had outside a "cheese monger" metropolitan area. 🤔 Of course when you fly to six continents daily your choices are almost limitless.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...233b8ee46b.png

The 40+ years old Tawny port and the 2006 Dom Perignon was a nice accompaniment.

There was brie in my F&C platter ex-JFK yesterday.

i have tried many different levels and qualities of Brie and never cared for any of them. But at least I try as I know there can be differences.

If I fly them again, I'm bringing a bottle of Dom with me into the shower ;)

I always laugh that FA's try to get me to eat a lot of the cheese plate offerings- I generally have some, but like to stick to the other onboard snacks (Int'l F).

I just flew Vancouver - Whitehorse on Air North and got a free "fruit & cheese" platter. Alaska, pay attention!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5d1b7f1531.jpg

FREE!
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b8b4db3c48.jpg

warm, AND free....

On ASA 67 Seattle-Ketch and asked for fruit & cheese platter instead of the thai chicken salad... and it has brie!!

There is another airline that offers free fruit and cheese in premium economy and first class: Virgin America :P

Is it the soft-ripened group as a whole or just brie? Where do you stand on camembert? I'm partial to stinky wash-rind cheeses, creamy blues, alpines and a real nice goat gouda.

Beecher's is nothing special, my general view of cheddar at least until it reaches old age. I do love the curds, which I've been known to purchase at the shop by SEA C2 and munch on a SEA-XXX transcon.

Camembert ^ ate a ton of it in Europe this summer, great stuff.

Tillamook has a special place in my heart growing up in the PNW. It melts differently than most mass market cheddars (including the Brandon cheddar which is owned by Tillamook). It cracks me up seeing "gourmet" hamburger and grilled cheese restaurants in SEA/PDX advertising that they use Tillamook medium cheddar. Tillamook medium cheddar tastes even better freshly sliced from the 5lb Costco loaf or the 2lb Fred Meyer loaf, the latter being the featured sale item every Founder's Day sale.

It confuses me that great Brie couldn't be sourced from a different country. Trader Joe's sells great Brie from both the US and Canada in addition to France. This isn't like the lime shortage when all limes available in the US were very expensive.

I had the cheese plate from PDX-AUS on 12/10 and was happy to see the brie. Looks like it is making its way back.

The fruit and cheese trays aboard AS15 BOS-SEA last night included brie. A Flight Attendant told me some stations have had it all along but ex-SEA it's been a challenge.

Take care - de-brie on the road!
https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney...d-hume-highway

They probably used all of it in those gloopy turkey and cheese sandwiches.

Hooray! Getting on a flight tonight and sifted back through this thread just hoping to see such a wonderful update :)

I had the cheese plate OAK-SEA on 12/16 and it also included the brie. Crisis averted.

Must have been the protests at PDX. Great signs: "Free the Brie," "Let it Brie," "Brie all that you can Brie." We love a good protest here in Portland. :p