He’s the big cheese: How a Frenchman became the cheese king of Katmandu

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Raised in a Parisian suburb of sidewalks and shopping malls, Francois Driard knew nothing about cheese-making until a few years ago. Now he’s getting rave reviews from mostly foreign customers in Nepal, one of the world’s poorest nations. And he’s famous, ‘the French cheese king of Katmandu’: Read more in today’s Column One.

Francois Driard inspects his cheeses in a cave outside Katmandu where they are aging. He figured that old-world methods would be at home in Nepal. (Mark Magnier / Los Angeles Times)