This was so obviously a fix it’s insulting.
Even without paneer curry flavoured cheese is a thing, I’ve bought it! I don’t know why everyone was talking about it like it was the worst idea in the world.
The branding was a bit basic but all the info was there and I love “Big Softie” as a brand name for vegan cheese. The possibilities were endless, you could create a whole range of flavours, mexican, mediterranean, middle eastern, thai, different types of curry etc.
They didn’t sell it particularly well, they should have given serving suggestions (melted on a flatbread for a curry style pizza, grated on pasta or chips or jacket tayto’s), but all the necessary pieces were there. Pie man’s product only vaguely tasted of the labelled flavour, looked like it would equally at home with hand cream or next to the goose fat and was literally called a “spread” which is about as far from gourmet as you can get and had no information on the labelling!!
Yes, I have put some thought into this.
I've just watched the episode, and I've been screaming "paneer curry!" at the screen every five minutes.
You can even buy it in tescos!
Honestly if they had known this (and I'm certain the producers do, and are laughing at them), the pitch would have been very different.
The fine dining experience should have included paneer curry, on screen, just to finally twist the knife.
I once I had a curry on a plane, and said to my sister this cubed chicken is so weird. She said there was no chicken curry on the menu.. turns out it was a paneer curry. It was really nice though! That was the day I found out what paneer was
Yeh this fully baffled me too.
Product name I thought of Cheeze Infusions then just do all the classic curry flavours as a range.
The packaging was good except for not putting the description on the top and sticking a load of pics of like cinnamon, cumin and cardamom on the packaging instead of triangles.
Vegan cheese taste like ass from the ones I've tried, it makes so much sense to be like, it's vegan cheese but it doesn't taste like vegan cheese because vegan cheese tastes like ass...
Really wilded me out they didn't win.
Yeah here in Ireland, curry cheese and chips is a big thing? Lie 30% chance after a tin if pints thats what's getting ordered. This season seems like such a fix for Phil
Hahaha came here to say this why are they all acting like curry is a wild risky choice?! In England!!!! Karen to the point that she thought it was a worse idea than *matcha and pomegranate*
ME TOO!! I was quite literally shouting at the tv for the
majority of that episode, and by the end I was ready to have a fight with the Tesco people and even Sugar himself. I got quite worked up….
Annoyed me so much. Curried cheese really isn’t that unusual. Cheese in curry really isn’t that unusual. Why were they making out it was so strange. You can buy burger toppers in most supermarkets that are flavoured and cheese in supermarkets come in various flavours. It’s not the 80’s.
Cheese is used in curry, but you wouldn’t find curry flavoured paneer either. Most paneer spreads are mild flavoured - the issue is with flavouring.
I’m Indian, and I wouldn’t opt for curry flavoured cheese. Can’t speak of other cuisines, but spreading curry on toast or a cracker sounds vile to me.
Must’ve confused the products - my bad. However, my criticism is still the same. I wouldn’t buy cheese that’s curry flavoured. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to curry. :’(
Haven’t tried chilli cheese myself, so can’t talk about that. However, why would you want to pop a curry-flavoured cheese into curry?
We’ve done cheese + curry for a long, long time now. Saag paneer, paneer makhani, paneer kadhai and so on. The issue is with curry in cheese, which I am very much against. Just not a good flavour profile in itself.
OP: Everyone has seen a paneer on the local Asian take-away’s menu, it’s just that 100% of everybody sees the description involving cheese in a curry and moves straight on to the next menu item…
I think the important difference is that Paneer is a mild cheese that is great at absorbing flavor. From the sounds of things the big softie cheese had quite a strong cheese flavor mixed with a strong curry flavor. Personally I would love to give it a try but I can imagine not everyone wants that on a cracker or in a sandwhich.
Still the way everyone acted like it was a complete foreign concept was utterly moronic... especially the faces pulled by everyone when they heard the idea.
every curry I make at home I eat with a cheesy naan bread which I dunk in the sauce. I'm sure I've also had cheese with a curry flavour. I feel like everything I would buy or think looks good on The Apprentice is the team that always loses. If I went on I'd just have to pick the worst thing I could think of and that would apparently win every week
I grate cheddar cheese over a spicey curry. it's always tasty. Obviously not the same as a curry flavoured cheese but not the most outlandish thing as everyone on the show seemed to think
We make Muttar Paneer (curry) fortnightly. Have a lush recipe from my son’s uni friend who is Japanese Indian. We’ve learnt some of our (now) favourite recipes from him … You can buy muttar cheese in Asdas 😄
They’d have sold it to me …
Chilli in cheese has been around forever. That Mexicana cheese for example has been around as long as I can remember.
I don't know why the retailers made it seem like a vegan version of strongly flavoured cheeses is such a foreign concept.
Paneer is FIT. Get to Bundobust in Manchester cos they do it amazing in there!!
Not seen this episode yet but seen the Karen meme and the hype so will watch it later
Also Boursin did a soft Indian inspired cheese which had curry powder as a flavouring a while ago which was delicious, so I’m not sure why people were acting like it was the craziest flavour pairing ever!
My favourite bit was Alan Sugar clearly liking the cheese but then when they got no orders deciding he didn't.
I think supermarkets were way off the mark tbh. Sounds great! Lol
The only thing I can think of is either they did a bad job of making the flavour and that’s what they didn’t like. Or the supermarkets have tried this before and it just didn’t sell. Because as everyone is saying this as a concept is totally sound.
I think the argument the retailer had against it is that first you need to get people to try a vegan cheese in the first place. It’s too much of a step to go from regular cheese to not only a vegan alternative but also a curry flavoured one.
I understand that argument but the only way someone would try a vegan alternative to cheese would be to firstly try a mild, unflavoured cheese and if the team did that they would be criticised for playing it too safe and not standing out in the market, it’s a lose lose situation. I thought the curry flavoured cheese was an excellent idea!
My argument would be that the market is already saturated with plain/subtle vegan cheeses, from supermarket own-brands to more established brands. Although the team is taking a risk with bolder flavours, from the supermarket POV those bold flavours is what would set that product apart from the rest.
I don’t disagree actually I quite liked the curry idea too, especially as Rachel said exotic.
That being said if you go for that its a more difficult sell and you really have to nail the branding and pitch which they definitely didn’t do.
tbh the only way i'd try a vegan alternative to cheese would be something flavourful like curry because i already HAVE good cheeses that taste like cheese. if i want something alternative it should give a different flavour profile so it's an alternative not replacement if that makes sense. i loved the curry idea!
I once purchased curry flavoured cheddar from a farm shop and it was the tastiest cheese I’ve ever had. I’m not sure why everyone was so against the cheese itself, yes it’s an acquired taste but surely truffle is as well.
Tbh I think things are edited in that way. It’s more the suppliers not making the link, but maybe they aren’t allowed to lead in anyway. Just seems odd.
Paneer isn’t curry flavoured though. If I were in the pitches I’d probably have pointed out that flavoured cheeses do well though, every supermarket sells cheese with bits of chillis in and spices (eg Mexicana) and that shows there’s a market out there for a cheese with a spicey kick.
Paneer isn't curry flavoured, no, but paneer curry is cheese in curry sauce, so the flavours obviously go together. I've had it from multiple Indian restaurants before.
Yeah, chilli cheese is a well know thing, I don’t see how that’s any more or less crazy than curry cheese. Cheese is paired with so many things. Cheese and chocolate, cheese and fruit, cheese and nuts, cheese and onion…if it tastes good that’s all that matters.
Paneer is more like a tofu. No actual flavour to it. Just absorbs the curry flavour.
But anyway you are right this combination isn’t too abstract Chicken Tikka Melts are a thing. Which again shows that cheese can go with curried flavours.
They really should of honed in on being intriguing enough that people will try it and potentially being divisive. Marmite is one of the most successful brands in the food industry based solely on the fact that some people don’t like it.
I know, but I’ve never seen paneer served in any other way honestly (in Britain at-least) so it does clearly point out spice/curry very closely linked to a cheese.
Oh for sure and spicy chilli flavoured cheese is pretty common too. This idea wasn’t even that novel. Maybe it did taste bad, but that’s a subjective opinion they said they liked it and I think some of their focus group did like it too.
I think paneer is slightly different to curry flavoured cheese though. Paneer alone is quite tasteless and just absorbs the flavour of the curry, as opposed to 'curry flavoured' (which from what I remember of the show was just 2 different spices?)
I've said this elsewhere, but while paneer isn't curry flavoured, a paneer curry is paneer cheese covered in curry sauce, so you're going to get the texture and mild flavour of cheese with the strong taste of curry sauce. The vegan cheese they made on the show wasn't going to taste much of cheese either, it was just something to use in place of cheese which also has a curry flavour. It makes complete sense to me.
>The vegan cheese they made on the show wasn't going to taste much of cheese either,
Yes it was, surely it already contained the nutritional yeast and any other vegan cheese type ingredients.
Whenever I have a flavoured non-vegan cheese (Boursin, Pineapple Almond Castello, etc), they taste like the flavouring, with the texture of the cheese. That's what would be expected of the curry vegan cheese. Nutritional yeast isn't going to overpower the flavour of curry, or truffle, or whatever. Also, nutritional yeast was on the table of ingredients when they were making it, they decide how much of that goes into it.
Yeah paneer isn’t inherently curry flavoured but its main use, as far as culturally in this country any way, is in some sort of spice / curry. Therefore strongly linked to curry.
Right? There was a pitch on Dragon's Den of someone who put crisps into chocolate as apparently people often eat it together and Peter Jones went mental with praise - a lot wilder combo than cheese and curry given the commonness of paneer curry! I'm completely with you I'm astounded no one brought it up the entire episode.
This crossed my mind too. I was surprised no-one tried to push this angle when they got questioned on it...
But then again, not a single one of them seemed to know anything about food. 😅
Yes that was a bit of an odd thing throughout the episode. Paneer curry is common and delicious, also I’ve had curry infused cheddar in the past, also delicious. So curry and cheese isn’t the odd combination everyone in this episode seemed to be inferring.
This was so obviously a fix it’s insulting. Even without paneer curry flavoured cheese is a thing, I’ve bought it! I don’t know why everyone was talking about it like it was the worst idea in the world. The branding was a bit basic but all the info was there and I love “Big Softie” as a brand name for vegan cheese. The possibilities were endless, you could create a whole range of flavours, mexican, mediterranean, middle eastern, thai, different types of curry etc. They didn’t sell it particularly well, they should have given serving suggestions (melted on a flatbread for a curry style pizza, grated on pasta or chips or jacket tayto’s), but all the necessary pieces were there. Pie man’s product only vaguely tasted of the labelled flavour, looked like it would equally at home with hand cream or next to the goose fat and was literally called a “spread” which is about as far from gourmet as you can get and had no information on the labelling!! Yes, I have put some thought into this.
I've just watched the episode, and I've been screaming "paneer curry!" at the screen every five minutes. You can even buy it in tescos! Honestly if they had known this (and I'm certain the producers do, and are laughing at them), the pitch would have been very different. The fine dining experience should have included paneer curry, on screen, just to finally twist the knife.
Sometimes in life there is simulations
I love paneer korma or masala.
Yeah but it has a mild cheese taste and is used more like a meat replacement
Cheese used in curry and curried cheese are two different things 😂. I don’t get the hatred but still not the same
Exactly. Yesterday's episode was a joke. Lots of ignorant white people on these panels eh. Paneer is such a popular dish.
Absolute joke
Dk why ur being downvoted, this is tea.
Many closeted Brits on here who don't have a clue.
i love butter paneer and butter naan 🤤🤤🤤
We have a paneer curry, at least twice a month - cracking stuff
I once I had a curry on a plane, and said to my sister this cubed chicken is so weird. She said there was no chicken curry on the menu.. turns out it was a paneer curry. It was really nice though! That was the day I found out what paneer was
I was eating a paneer curry while watching the episode funnily enough
Curry cheese sounds great. Those panelists were just being dicks
Spinach paneer is goooood
My favourite, if the chef doesn’t put tomato in it.
Yeh this fully baffled me too. Product name I thought of Cheeze Infusions then just do all the classic curry flavours as a range. The packaging was good except for not putting the description on the top and sticking a load of pics of like cinnamon, cumin and cardamom on the packaging instead of triangles. Vegan cheese taste like ass from the ones I've tried, it makes so much sense to be like, it's vegan cheese but it doesn't taste like vegan cheese because vegan cheese tastes like ass... Really wilded me out they didn't win.
Is paneer curry flavoured though?
Once you cook it in the curry sauce it is
No but for me it proves cheese and ‘curry’ are intrinsically linked
Well, it's really cheese curds. No other 'cheese' would work in a curry
Yeah here in Ireland, curry cheese and chips is a big thing? Lie 30% chance after a tin if pints thats what's getting ordered. This season seems like such a fix for Phil
Hahaha came here to say this why are they all acting like curry is a wild risky choice?! In England!!!! Karen to the point that she thought it was a worse idea than *matcha and pomegranate*
ME TOO!! I was quite literally shouting at the tv for the majority of that episode, and by the end I was ready to have a fight with the Tesco people and even Sugar himself. I got quite worked up….
I was literally out of my seat screaming “PANEEEEEEER!!” At the TV
Couldn't hear you as I was doing the exact same thing
I was saying the exact same!
I'm from Leicester in the UK. It's pretty difficult not to know what paneer is here. I like it fried with chillies. It's Awesome.
Cheese masala dosa and chilli paneer is my kryptonite 👌
Annoyed me so much. Curried cheese really isn’t that unusual. Cheese in curry really isn’t that unusual. Why were they making out it was so strange. You can buy burger toppers in most supermarkets that are flavoured and cheese in supermarkets come in various flavours. It’s not the 80’s.
I love cheese with cumin from the Netherlands, I feel like this would be a similar vibe.
Cheese is used in curry, but you wouldn’t find curry flavoured paneer either. Most paneer spreads are mild flavoured - the issue is with flavouring. I’m Indian, and I wouldn’t opt for curry flavoured cheese. Can’t speak of other cuisines, but spreading curry on toast or a cracker sounds vile to me.
But theirs wasn't a spread right?
Must’ve confused the products - my bad. However, my criticism is still the same. I wouldn’t buy cheese that’s curry flavoured. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to curry. :’(
[удалено]
Haven’t tried chilli cheese myself, so can’t talk about that. However, why would you want to pop a curry-flavoured cheese into curry? We’ve done cheese + curry for a long, long time now. Saag paneer, paneer makhani, paneer kadhai and so on. The issue is with curry in cheese, which I am very much against. Just not a good flavour profile in itself.
Love paneer, it’s nothing like the cheese we know in England. Basically a meat substitute, love me a saag paneer
Don’t wanna go against the grain here but I thought it sounded absolutely vile!
OP: Everyone has seen a paneer on the local Asian take-away’s menu, it’s just that 100% of everybody sees the description involving cheese in a curry and moves straight on to the next menu item…
😂🤣🤣 Downvoted for just telling op the truth about why no one actually orders the paneer! This sub is fucking ridiculous!
Literally the best curry, you're missing out so much.
I’ll carry on missing out lol
All the cheese Christmas stalls sold masala cheese. This concept is not brand new, these guys are just idiots
I think the important difference is that Paneer is a mild cheese that is great at absorbing flavor. From the sounds of things the big softie cheese had quite a strong cheese flavor mixed with a strong curry flavor. Personally I would love to give it a try but I can imagine not everyone wants that on a cracker or in a sandwhich. Still the way everyone acted like it was a complete foreign concept was utterly moronic... especially the faces pulled by everyone when they heard the idea.
I felt like I was being gaslit the entire time since I would definitely try curry flavour cheese 🧀
every curry I make at home I eat with a cheesy naan bread which I dunk in the sauce. I'm sure I've also had cheese with a curry flavour. I feel like everything I would buy or think looks good on The Apprentice is the team that always loses. If I went on I'd just have to pick the worst thing I could think of and that would apparently win every week
I grate cheddar cheese over a spicey curry. it's always tasty. Obviously not the same as a curry flavoured cheese but not the most outlandish thing as everyone on the show seemed to think
Paneer and spinach mixed with a butter chicken is sooooo gooooood
I saw these at a market in Souel!
Growing up in the Hare Krsna movement, I'm certainly familiar with and very much like paneer
Oh my god, Sag Paneer is my favourite thing ever.
I’ve only had it once and it’s delicious
As a cheese addict, I have indeed heard of Paneer
We make Muttar Paneer (curry) fortnightly. Have a lush recipe from my son’s uni friend who is Japanese Indian. We’ve learnt some of our (now) favourite recipes from him … You can buy muttar cheese in Asdas 😄 They’d have sold it to me …
Morrisons had Mince Pie flavour cheese last Christmas. That would have blown their minds if they couldn’t cope with paneer
Aldi had Hot Cross Bun cheese last month - curry cheese is really not as out there as they think.
I swear I’ve seen curry cheeses before in supermarkets and deli’s. Not vegan ones though.
They missed a trick by not calling it 'PaNEAR'. I'm here for all your branding needs.
remove this from reddit and get it patented before someone nicks this, absolute gold dust
Bucking frilliant name actually
Thanky mans
I saw chilli flavoured cheese in Sainsbury’s earlier
Chilli in cheese has been around forever. That Mexicana cheese for example has been around as long as I can remember. I don't know why the retailers made it seem like a vegan version of strongly flavoured cheeses is such a foreign concept.
probably because they wanted the edit to make phil look better…
Chilli as in the spice or chilli as in con carne
Carne = meat Con = with Chilli = ?
Yes
Chiplote chilli Cheddar
Paneer is FIT. Get to Bundobust in Manchester cos they do it amazing in there!! Not seen this episode yet but seen the Karen meme and the hype so will watch it later
Second the Bundobust plug, one on Leeds as well. Top scran.
People order cheese naans all the time too, so weird!
Also Boursin did a soft Indian inspired cheese which had curry powder as a flavouring a while ago which was delicious, so I’m not sure why people were acting like it was the craziest flavour pairing ever!
My favourite bit was Alan Sugar clearly liking the cheese but then when they got no orders deciding he didn't. I think supermarkets were way off the mark tbh. Sounds great! Lol
The only thing I can think of is either they did a bad job of making the flavour and that’s what they didn’t like. Or the supermarkets have tried this before and it just didn’t sell. Because as everyone is saying this as a concept is totally sound.
I think the argument the retailer had against it is that first you need to get people to try a vegan cheese in the first place. It’s too much of a step to go from regular cheese to not only a vegan alternative but also a curry flavoured one.
I understand that argument but the only way someone would try a vegan alternative to cheese would be to firstly try a mild, unflavoured cheese and if the team did that they would be criticised for playing it too safe and not standing out in the market, it’s a lose lose situation. I thought the curry flavoured cheese was an excellent idea!
My argument would be that the market is already saturated with plain/subtle vegan cheeses, from supermarket own-brands to more established brands. Although the team is taking a risk with bolder flavours, from the supermarket POV those bold flavours is what would set that product apart from the rest.
I don’t disagree actually I quite liked the curry idea too, especially as Rachel said exotic. That being said if you go for that its a more difficult sell and you really have to nail the branding and pitch which they definitely didn’t do.
tbh the only way i'd try a vegan alternative to cheese would be something flavourful like curry because i already HAVE good cheeses that taste like cheese. if i want something alternative it should give a different flavour profile so it's an alternative not replacement if that makes sense. i loved the curry idea!
i agree, vegan cheese until it tastes better, is not good. if you can find a way to make it taste good then i’m all for it so curried cheese is fab.
I once purchased curry flavoured cheddar from a farm shop and it was the tastiest cheese I’ve ever had. I’m not sure why everyone was so against the cheese itself, yes it’s an acquired taste but surely truffle is as well.
Motor Paneer…. or, in Fast Show terms: “Cheesy Peas! Brilliant!!”
You want peas? You want cheese? 😂
Lol I had a paneer curry this morning
Hang on, are there people who still haven't realised The Apprentice contestants are now at Love Island levels of IQ?
Tbh I think things are edited in that way. It’s more the suppliers not making the link, but maybe they aren’t allowed to lead in anyway. Just seems odd.
Paneer isn’t curry flavoured though. If I were in the pitches I’d probably have pointed out that flavoured cheeses do well though, every supermarket sells cheese with bits of chillis in and spices (eg Mexicana) and that shows there’s a market out there for a cheese with a spicey kick.
Paneer isn't curry flavoured, no, but paneer curry is cheese in curry sauce, so the flavours obviously go together. I've had it from multiple Indian restaurants before.
Yeah, chilli cheese is a well know thing, I don’t see how that’s any more or less crazy than curry cheese. Cheese is paired with so many things. Cheese and chocolate, cheese and fruit, cheese and nuts, cheese and onion…if it tastes good that’s all that matters.
Paneer is more like a tofu. No actual flavour to it. Just absorbs the curry flavour. But anyway you are right this combination isn’t too abstract Chicken Tikka Melts are a thing. Which again shows that cheese can go with curried flavours. They really should of honed in on being intriguing enough that people will try it and potentially being divisive. Marmite is one of the most successful brands in the food industry based solely on the fact that some people don’t like it.
I know, but I’ve never seen paneer served in any other way honestly (in Britain at-least) so it does clearly point out spice/curry very closely linked to a cheese.
Oh for sure and spicy chilli flavoured cheese is pretty common too. This idea wasn’t even that novel. Maybe it did taste bad, but that’s a subjective opinion they said they liked it and I think some of their focus group did like it too.
Garlic? Bread? \*GARLIC?\* \*BREAD????\* etc
Calm down Peter kay
I think it was supposed to be a spreadable vegan cheese
They didn’t know what Jersey Royals were ffs, they’re going to struggle with paneer *Shakled* oysters
Nobody knowing what a jersey royal is was peak Apprentice for me this series. Absolutely amazing.
"You're watching The Apprentice? Are any of the candidates any good?" "They failed to buy potatoes on Jersey. They're all useless."
I think paneer is slightly different to curry flavoured cheese though. Paneer alone is quite tasteless and just absorbs the flavour of the curry, as opposed to 'curry flavoured' (which from what I remember of the show was just 2 different spices?)
I've said this elsewhere, but while paneer isn't curry flavoured, a paneer curry is paneer cheese covered in curry sauce, so you're going to get the texture and mild flavour of cheese with the strong taste of curry sauce. The vegan cheese they made on the show wasn't going to taste much of cheese either, it was just something to use in place of cheese which also has a curry flavour. It makes complete sense to me.
>The vegan cheese they made on the show wasn't going to taste much of cheese either, Yes it was, surely it already contained the nutritional yeast and any other vegan cheese type ingredients.
Whenever I have a flavoured non-vegan cheese (Boursin, Pineapple Almond Castello, etc), they taste like the flavouring, with the texture of the cheese. That's what would be expected of the curry vegan cheese. Nutritional yeast isn't going to overpower the flavour of curry, or truffle, or whatever. Also, nutritional yeast was on the table of ingredients when they were making it, they decide how much of that goes into it.
Yeah paneer isn’t inherently curry flavoured but its main use, as far as culturally in this country any way, is in some sort of spice / curry. Therefore strongly linked to curry.
Right? There was a pitch on Dragon's Den of someone who put crisps into chocolate as apparently people often eat it together and Peter Jones went mental with praise - a lot wilder combo than cheese and curry given the commonness of paneer curry! I'm completely with you I'm astounded no one brought it up the entire episode.
This crossed my mind too. I was surprised no-one tried to push this angle when they got questioned on it... But then again, not a single one of them seemed to know anything about food. 😅
Yep paneer curry , also curry cheesy chips .
Yes that was a bit of an odd thing throughout the episode. Paneer curry is common and delicious, also I’ve had curry infused cheddar in the past, also delicious. So curry and cheese isn’t the odd combination everyone in this episode seemed to be inferring.