SOHRAB CHINOY, master cheese-maker from the Dairy College in Gelnhausen, Germany, began his business of making and selling cheese in Pune on a dismally small scale. He sold 200 gms a day... on a good day! But while most other people would have chucked in the towel and gone onto other things in life, Sohrab persevered.

And today, he runs a multi-crore cheese business from the cool confines of the ABC Farms in Pune. His list of clients is impressive. It inludes the Oberoi Group of Hotels, the Holiday Inn Group, the Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi, the Bombay, Goa, Pune and Bangalore hotels of the Taj Group, the American Shakey's Pizza Chain, Air-India, the Le Meredien of Pune, pizzeria chains in Pune, Bombay, Goa, Ahmedabad, Anand, Thank God It's Friday in Delhi. And he makes some 60 varieties of cheese, including Camembert, Brie, Mozzarella, Gouda, Edam Ball, Cheddar, Parmesan, Emmental and Gruyere.

The ABC Farms is run by three partners, Agha, Bhatena and Chinoy, and they started off with 27 acres of land in Dehu Road where they had an abundance of water, good land, a shed for their 14 heads of cattle, and farming in their blood. They used to supply milk to the industries in and around Pune, but the wear and tear on the business, and the cut-throat competetion, left them with little profit at the end.

So, Sohrab put his knowledge of making cheese to use, and began processing some of the milk they had into cheese. "About 10 litres of milk makes one kilo of cheese," he says. "And our cheese is 100 per cent vegetarian, we sell about 700, 800 kg of cheese per day, and much of this sale is institutional." The prices of Sohrab's cheeses range from Rs. 150 to Rs. 800 a kg. Much of the produce at ABC Farms is used by the four restaurants within the complex.

How different are his cheeses from those made abroad? He says, "The starter culture, methodology of making procedure is absolutely parallel. But the breed of cattle, the climate, the feed, all contribute to the flavour of milk... and this is just not the same! Plus, I have to live with the fact that MSEB plays a major role in my business. Cheese has to be maintained in a cold, insulated room at 10 to 15 degrees C.

If there is a power failure... So ultimately, there is a slight variation in the end product. Technically, I am not supposed to call my cheeses Emental and Gouda and what not, because these are patented names.

Like Champagne. So I have to say, 'Just like Emental'. But cheesemasters from around the world don't believe what I am producing. They thing I'm pulling their legs! They cannot believe such cheese comes out of India! People now come to the ABC Farms to buy cheese like they stop at the Kayani Bakery in Pune to pick up shrewsburry biscuits!"