Indeed it was! French and Italian cuisines are heavily influenced by one another but their main difference is that French cuisine is very fussy and laborious. It is all about celebrating the skill to take superb ingredients and turn them into incredible feast of textures, aromas and colors; accuracy, technique, saucing techniques, the right cookware and presentation for each dish, etc. Italian cuisine on the other hand is as close as you can get to earth. It celebrates the ingredients in theor raw naked form, very un-fussy and direct, rustic, simple yet sophisticated. When a french chef makes a red sauce he would crush the romatoes, braise the garlic, add heavy cream, mix it with an immersion blender and run it through a sieve into a bowl of languistine stock. When an Italian chef wants to do the same he drops some unpeeled cloves of garlic into a pan full of hot olive oil, add tomatos until they explode, reduce the heat and add half of the glass of wine that he was busy drinking, done.
If you look at their cheese you will notice that it's no different. While the french are busy with exacting affinage, smooth moulds and lots of cheese politics the Italians just drop the thing into wicker baskets, add rennet, toss salt and they are done... (Okay, I am exaggerating of course but you get my drift)
Now where could I get the recipes for the above cheese from . . . .
Which one
It seems that citizen of Paris are crazy for Cheese.
I think the citizens of every city, town and village in that country is like that. Europe in general is very cheese-centric and traditional that way. Paris in particular is situated in the heart of a bustling cheesemaking region.