The Surprising Story of Artisan Cheesemaking in Vietnam

Editor’s note: Here at the Cheese Professor we are interested in cheese from all over the world so we are happy to have Katie Lockhart, who is currently living in Vietnam share this story about artisanal European style cheese. You might think that with a colonial French history Vietnam favors French cheeses, but as you’ll learn from it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Miles and miles of greenhouses dot the horizon in Đà Lạt. The Central Highland city is well recognized for its agricultural prowess, producing Vietnam’s best avocados, coffee, wine, strawberries, and milk.

Besides the Laughing Cow cheese used in street-side banh mi, Vietnam isn’t known for its love of lactose. But the beloved Japanese/Italian fusion chain restaurant Pizza 4P’s is changing that.

Located about an hour from the city of Đà Lạt is Đơn Dương cheese factory, where Pizza 4P’s make the majority of high-quality cheese in Vietnam. “We’re inspired to make original products that can only be made in Vietnam. We want to use Vietnamese ingredients in our cheese-making processes. For example, using Vietnamese rice wine with lactic cheese and Vietnamese pepper with string cheese,” says Pizza 4P’s CEO and Founder, Yosuke Masuko.

After opening in 2011, the restaurant struggled to find fresh mozzarella for its pizzas. Instead of settling for imported, past-date cheeses, they began to produce their own. While the cheese is homemade, the lactic acid bacteria, molds, and yeast are imported from France and Italy.

The high elevation and cool Central Highlands climate of Đà Lạt make it an ideal place for growing produce. It also raises healthy cows, resulting in better quality milk with a higher fat and protein content. To ensure the best quality cheese, Pizza 4P’s imported cows from Thailand and Australia, conducted feed and environmental research for the cows and trained in cheese factories in France and Japan to learn more about the cheese-making process.

Today, they make 13 different kinds of all-natural cheese sent to more than 300 different restaurants and hotels throughout Vietnam. The variety of Italian cheeses is impressive, from fresh mozzarella to scamorza to ricotta to their signature burrata. They also produce and sell blue cheese, camembert and raclette, They’re the first company to make burrata in Vietnam, and it’s one of their most popular sellers placed on top of thousands of pizzas per day. “We have improved the quality of burrata many times over the years. We are very proud of the balance between the thin-surfaced skin and the rich, creamy flavor,” says Masuko.

Cheese enthusiasts can sample the different types of cheese through menu items like the assorted cheese plate or 4P’s cheese fondue in any one of their locations in Hà Nội, Hồ Chí Minh City, Đà Nẵng, and Nha Trang. Pizza 4P’s is looking to expand its pizza and cheese empire in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia.