Great French Cheeses To Offer On A Cheeseboard In Your Restaurant

Jul 15 2024

With over 1,000 different cheeses to choose from, putting a cheeseboard together for your restaurant can seem like a daunting prospect, but in truth, the quality of French cheeses available means you can’t really go wrong, and the challenge really is on making a selection that offers the most variation.
In French restaurants the cheeseboard is traditionally presented after the mains course and before the desserts, while in the UK the cheeseboard is usually listed as a dessert alternative. We love French cheeses so much that we would serve them as a starter or mains also, but however you wish to do it, there’s a certain etiquette to doing a French cheeseboard well, and this begins with the most important aspect, which of course is which cheeses to offer.

Which cheeses to choose on a French cheeseboard?

With French cheeses we are talking about quality not quantity, so don’t overdo it as there is such a thing as too much cheese. So most restaurants offer three cheeses from a choice of four, although we think that’s a bit mean given how many great French cheeses there are, so make your restaurant stand out from the crowd and offer four cheeses from however many you want to provide. Choice is everything, so don’t be stingy. These should come from four different categories which, when put together, present the best qualities and varieties of French cheese available. So this should be a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese and a distinctive cheese (here you can select a special featured cheese from the many varieties that have a unique character or appearance).

We would suggest some of the following:

Hard – Maybe a Comtè, a Beaufort or a Gruyere
Soft – Brie is a must-have but also include Coulommiers as an alternative
Blue – Has to include Roquefort as an option, but maybe also offer a Bleu Saint Fleur or Bleu d’Auvergne
Distinctive – Lots to choose from here but we suggest a Mont Brie Bleu – a wonderful fusion of Brie and Blue cheese – a Morbier – the two-layer cheese separated with a vein of ash – or a Tomme de Savoie – the oldest cheese of the Savoie region with a characterful hard rind. You could also opt for a Tomme des Pyrenees, with its distinctive black rind.

French cheeseboard etiquette

Using these four categories you can offer variety in taste, texture, aroma and visual appeal and provide a whistle-stop tour of the French regions and the best of French cheese on one delicious board. But don’t forget your French cheeseboard etiquette and give careful consideration to these things too:

Pairings - Parings are difficult because of the variety of cheeses on offer, so opt for some steady and adaptable offerings, such as nuts, fig chutney, apples or honey.
Knife – Offer a different knife for each type of cheese, these cheeses are too good to mix between mouthfuls, and the goo from a delicious soft cheese will be transferred to impact on the taste of a strong blue cheese if you don’t. Each cheese deserves to stand on its own merits.
Temperature – Remove the cheeses from the fridge a good hour before serving, room temperature brings out the best flavour and aromas.
Wrappers – Take the cheeses out of their wrappers, present them in all their glory to make them more appealing, but also to let them breathe and make them easier to tuck into.
Explain – Make sure your guests are given a little detail about each cheese, particularly the taste, so that they can maybe start with a mild cheese and work upwards to the stronger tasting cheeses.

All these things combine to present the cheese in the very best conditions, so that they can be savoured to demonstrate their quality and character, and to make the French cheeseboard course and your restaurant an unforgettable experience.