10-year-old boy favours cheese over chocolate

“Cheese is tastier than chocolate,” confesses a 10-year-old schoolboy who may very well be the biggest cheese fan in the South West.

Cheese Monster, Toby Davies from St Ives eats his way through seven packs of cheese a month, according to his mother, Lesley Davies, and he seems to be thriving on it.

Toby enjoys cheese any which way: by itself, on toast, with a pear or an apple, in his sandwiches as well grated as on pasta.

Toby’s latest cheese squeeze is Dorset Red, a mild, red cheddar made by hand and naturally smoked over oak chips to give it a deliciously smoky flavour. ‘I love it. It tastes just like bonfires’ said Toby. “My mum bought it for the first time just before Christmas and she’s had to keep running back to the supermarket to buy more. I’m worried it’s going to sell out! Fortunately, Ford Farm who make it have agreed to top me up if they do. It was my favourite thing to eat over Christmas.”

“For a 10-year-old to prefer cheese to chocolate is quite an achievement,” admits mum, Lesley, particularly given a recent survey that revealed that Britain’s insatiable appetite for chocolate makes us the chocoholics of Europe, with the average Briton devouring 11.2kg annually.

“Toby has always had a savoury tooth which is partly down to nurture. When he and his brother, Gabriel, were little, we tended to offer savoury rather than sweet snacks. Clearly this has steered their taste buds in a cheesy direction and bred a couple of insatiable cheese monsters!”

Toby, like most children, does love chocolate too but cheese will always be his preferred choice. “You can eat loads of cheese without getting that sickly sweet feeling you get from eating too much chocolate,” he adds.