In November 2025, the Yorkshire Post Magazine gave me the chance to tell the longer version of how George & Joseph came to exist.
The headline summed up the unlikely bit rather neatly: after more than 20 years working in IT, I gave it up to become a cheesemonger.
It wasn’t exactly a masterplan
I had always loved food and cheese, but for a long time my career was in technology. After moving to Leeds in 2001, I became increasingly interested in Yorkshire food producers and, in particular, the extraordinary cheeses being made around the region.
Eventually curiosity turned into a business idea. I started trading at fairs and farmers’ markets in 2012, learning what people wanted to buy and whether Leeds had room for a specialist cheese shop.
In 2013 we opened our first shop in Chapel Allerton. In 2017 we moved to our larger home on Harrogate Road.
What changed — and what didn’t
George & Joseph has grown into much more than that first little shop. We now sell online across the UK, run tastings, subscriptions and G&J Cheese School, work with wedding and celebration customers, and spend a lot of time talking about cheese in classrooms, judging rooms and occasionally the media.
But the basic idea is still the same: help people discover brilliant cheese without making them feel they need a qualification before they walk through the door.
One million love affairs with cheese
Our ambition is to inspire one million love affairs with cheese. It sounds enormous, and that is rather the point. Every new favourite discovered at the counter, every tasting guest and every cheese box sent around the country takes us a little further towards it.
The Yorkshire Post profile appeared on 23 November 2025. You can find the Yorkshire Post archive entry here.
If you’d like the fuller story, meet Stephen, read about George & Joseph, or explore our press, awards and recognition.
This article was added retrospectively to the G&J Journal archive to record the people, milestones and stories that have shaped George & Joseph.