Well, there’s certainly an art to it. It’s not just about offering a variety of delicious produce, it’s about wisely choosing the right produce to combine together. The cheese plays off the fruit, the fruit plays off the veg, the veg plays off the olives, the olives… you get the drift.
Watch as we put together our perfect cheese grazing board with plenty of good company.
A big shout out is due to our generous industry pals for collaborating on this grazing adventure!
Offering a range of different cheese is a good place to start. Think of it like a journey, just like you’re tasting wine. You start with the light, fresh, sharp flavours and work your way through to the full bodied, earthy varieties. The same can be applied to choosing cheese for your grazing board! Begin with something soft and creamy like our Marinated Buffalo Feta and Stracciatella. Then you move up to the milky mouth morsel of a bocconcini and stunning hand-tied Burrata, ready to be broken into by a lucky guest to reveal the most oozy of creamy fillings. Then you can switch it up and bring a totally different flavour profile with our smoky Scamorza.
While colour is important, don’t get caught up on using random fruit, citrus and veg for the sole purpose of incorporating some colour. Remember, the flavours must marry together beautifully. It’s always good to see what’s in season, afterall, the produce is going to taste at it’s best and will cost you much less too. We like to use the sweetness of stone fruits like Prickle Hill Farm’s gorgeous Dried Sugar Plums to balance the saltiness of the cheese, and to cut through the creaminess of our Burrata we find ourselves munching on the ever so crunchy baby fennel and radish from our mates at Block 11 Organics. Use veggies as a way to cleanse the palate. Like after devouring Capocollo from De Palma Salumi, crunching into something fresh completes the eating experience and leaves you wanting more. Don’t forget to add in the brine factor! We use ALTO olives Ligurian olives and even drizzle our Burrata with lots of Robust olive oil.
You need good bread. And a variety of bread, too. We love cutting Brasserie Bread’s Raisin & Walnut Rye Sourdough nice and thin to pair with the cheese. It’s beautifully dense and earthy, which is exactly what your guests need to contrast the other mild flavours across the board. To dip into the creamy stracciatella the Rosemary & Sea Salt Pane Croccante works wonders and the Emmer Wholegrain Sourdough provides a good foundation for bocconcini all day, everyday.
So plan ahead, pre-order your cheese, go seek some fresh veg from your local farmers market such as Carriageworks Farmers Markets and allow the rest to be history! It’s about putting together an amazing spread ahead of time so that when the doorbell rings you can pop a bottle of prosecco and enjoy what really matters, the wonderful company of family and friends.
