Cheese, Louise

A French Connection

She takes me to the small cottage in her parents’ village in the south of France, and they welcome me with big smiles and open arms.  The French are a lovely people!  Shyly, I present them my small gifts of cheeses from the market nearby.  With soft squeals of delight, their hands shuffle around in their cupboards to reveal a wooden cheese board, plus garnish jars of cherry preserve and dill mustard.  Gentle slicing with cheese knives and a careful placement of toothpicks in each piece, and suddenly my humble cheeses are quite a display to behold!

Smile and Say Cheese

Displaying the Best Cheeses across the Board

Presentation is everything, they say.  As I stroll along a cobblestone street in a small town outside Milan, I know that that the different cheeses in my knapsack – bought from a little Italian cheese shoppe – deserve nothing less than the perfect elements for exhibition.  A wooden cheese board.  Ceramic cheese knives. Slices accompanied by sweet cherry preserves and zesty dill mustard.  Each piece bearing a ceramic marker with its name.  It is absolutely picture perfect!

The Eastern Cheese Board

The Greatest Thing since Sliced Cheese

In the northeast state of Vermont, there is a 280-mile path called the Cheese Trail, connecting multiple cheesemakers and other attractions all along this road.  As we drive this path through the state’s broad dairy lands, wooded hills, and river valleys, we pick out not only many different kinds of cheese, but also an arsenal of items to display them.  A rustic wooden cheese board with a rope handle.  Ceramic knives to make the perfect slices. Ceramic markers to name each piece.  A metal wire rack containing cherry preserves and dill mustard.  Cheese has never looked so good!

Cheese and Thank You’s

A Smorgasbord of the World’s Finest

Yes of course, the star of the show is the cheese.  But if there’s anything we learned as we tasted the best cheeses of the world in France, Italy, and Great Britain, it’s that presentation is key!  Inspired by the window shoppes from old Europe, we pick out a wooden board upon which to lay each piece.  Beside them we place ceramic knives that easily slice through as if the cheese were butter.  A metal wire rack invites guests to taste from the jars of cherry preserves and dill mustard.  And a classic ceramic marker proudly reveals the name of each individual cheese.  We can never go back to just any old cheese platter again!