A FORMER Coronation Street actor who traded in soap for cheese has made his culinary debut in Kendal.
 

Sean Wilson, who left Corrie in 2005 after playing Martin Platt for 20 years, put in an appearance at Asda, Kendal, to promote his Lancashire cheese range.
 

Mr Wilson said: “I've always been interested in food, the science and alchemy of it.
 

“I worked for a Michelin star restaurant called Northcote Manor when I left Corrie and spent lunch times with chef Lisa Allen talking about food.
 

“It was then that I decided to learn how to make cheese, and it was Bob Kitching who taught me how to make it.”
 

The 49-year-old was offering customers tasters of his Lancashire cheeses How's Your Father and Mouth Almighty which are in Asda at £2.20 each.
 

“This is Lancashire cheese that has provenance, and it's all from our own heard at Inglewhite, near Preston.
 

“I'm proud of our cheese, it's made with love,” he added.
 

Mr Wilson and business partner Mark 'Rev' Revell run the Saddleworth Cheese Company which supplies big names such as Tesco and Asda, as well as smaller organisations like Churchmouse Cheeses, Barbon.
 

Mr Wilson, whose favourite cheese is their award winning creamy Lancashire How's Your Father, said it was a conscious decision to drop his acting career for food.
 

“I left Coronation Street with a pipe dream to become involved in food," he said.

And while there are only two cheeses on sale in Asda, the duo also make a blue cheese called Smelly Ha'peth and a crumbly cheese called Muldoon's Picnic.
 

Mr Revell said: “They're all named after Lancashire terms.
 

“We've won a few major awards, like The World Cheese Awards which we've won for three years running from 2011 to 2013.”
 

The pair also released The Great Northern Cook Book in 2012, and have enjoyed the success of an accompanying series on Channel 5, which Mr Wilson said he hoped would soon be followed by another.