Food heroes: the big cheese

Founder of the iconic Kapiti brand, Ross McCallum has impeccable cheese-making credentials and a spot-on intuition for what customers want. New Zealand’s cheese lovers have much to thank him for. Words Lyn Barnes; photos Simon Young.

* See the end of this article for web-exclusive cheese recipes by Ruth Pretty.

ROSS MCCALLUM seems to emit spores. Just like the penicillin mould that adds flavour, texture and a distinctive look to blue cheeses, Ross, the father of artisan cheese in New Zealand, sparks change in people and products within his reach, adding value where he can. The former cheese maker, who co-founded Kapiti Cheese in the 1980s, has more recently teamed up with old friends and former politicians Wyatt Creech and John Luxton to found the Kaimai Cheese Company. Along the way he’s worked on a number of different projects, consulting and encouraging other food producers. 

His ability to develop a business and build a brand has rubbed off closer to home too. Daughter Jocelyn (38) and son David (40) literally grew up in the Kapiti cheese factory, working in the business as teenagers. David now works in finance and Jocelyn is the private-label manager for Foodstuffs Own Brands Ltd. Ross puts his kids’ success down to skills learnt by working with food and facing the public as teenagers: the same skills that have been the key to his own remarkable success.

For 18 years after he graduated with a Diploma in Dairy Technology from Massey University, Ross worked for Kiwi Dairy in South Taranaki, a dairy cooperative which produced bulk cheese for export. But after a 12-week fellowship to the United States and Europe where he was exposed to boutique cheese operations, he became increasingly frustrated with his remoteness from his customers. It was the mid-1970s. He could see restaurants becoming popular in New Zealand and wine sales increasing alongside the demand for gourmet food. But what he did, opening his cheese factory on the Kapiti Coast, was well ahead of its time. Well before the term was coined, he could foresee the rise of the “gastro tourist”– those who like to seek out food experiences. 

He recognized that in the early ’80s this burgeoning food culture was more advanced in Wellington than it was in Auckland and he pondered where Wellingtonians might drive to quench their desire to try something new. So he co-founded his own brand of cheese, Lindale, named after the spot on the coast. This soon changed to Kapiti to better reflect where it was coming from, just as they had done in Europe for centuries. “Aorangi, Kikorangi – these names gave cheeses their unique New Zealand identity,” he says. During the busy weekends the Kapiti cheese makers would be out on the floor, talking to people. It was here, Ross says, that he learnt how to market his products to consumers.

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