By Gordon Edgar –
This is the time of the year that people want to serve cheese to their friends. Is there a better way to show your love and appreciation? I certainly can’t think of any.
Creating an amazing and personalized cheese plate is pretty easy if you know a few structural tricks. These aren’t cheesemonger trade secrets, but are instead mostly just common sense. You want a mix of milk types, textures, and appearances, and a few accompaniments. Honestly, the cheese does the hard work; you just have to put it in front of people.
Start with this plan for a five-cheese plate: soft-ripened, semi-soft cheese, goat milk, firm cheese, and a wildcard. In common cheese types, this could be any brie, young Manchego, Humboldt Fog, Aged Gouda, and Blue Stilton. (Little known cheese trivia: Stilton is considered a must-have Christmas cheese in England and even we sell easily five times as much Stilton in December as any other month.)
The great thing about envisioning a holiday cheese plate this way is that it is totally customizable. My late spouse raised goats for years and could no longer even stand the smell of goat cheese. That’s cool; just substitute a sheep or water buffalo cheese. My dad was raised by a German stepfather and loved the food, so I always need something really stinky for him, even if no one else wants it.
Almost everyone has favorite cheeses they “must” have on a cheese plate for personal preference or friend/family tradition. If you do, build around that. There is nothing wrong with anchoring your cheese plate with something familiar and comfortable.
My niece and sister, for example, demand a specific soft-ripened cheese: Fromager D’affinois. It’s not a show-off cheese, but it certainly is a crowd-pleaser. For a cheese plate to bring to a family gathering, I will bring the D’affinois (ozzy, buttery soft-ripened), Tomme Brebis (nutty, semi-soft sheep milk), Piper’s Pyramid from Capriole (goat cheese pyramid with paprika), Point Reyes Gouda (sweet, sharp, local firm cheese), and Nicasio Square (stinky, local, oozy, washed-rind, wildcard).
For chosen family and friends who are more food adventurous, I will do Rush Creek or Winnimere (bark-wrapped, rich, earthy, complex, season soft-ripened), Anabasque (Wisconsin semi-soft sheep), Brabander Reserve (seasonal, firm, crystalline goat), Beaufort Alpage (nutty, complex, French Alp wildcard #1), and Ginjazul Blue (a French Blue D’Auvergne soaked in a Portuguese cherry liqueur for wildcard #2). I got two wildcards on this one because I did a two-fer on the firm goat cheese. You see how this works.
Now, you will want to pair something with it. Membrillo (quince paste) and fig jams are classic pairings, but don’t sleep on our bulk section. We have all the dried fruit, chocolate, and nuts you could want, and amazing bulk honey. The pairing I am most excited about, though, is a saffron orange marmalade from Eat This Yum that is sweet, bitter, and complex. Yum is right. Oh, and if you are not shopping the day you are serving, go with crackers, not a baguette. Your uncut fingers will thank me for it and I am sure you have a lot of other things to do rather than cut day-old bread.
As for appearance, I like a big cutting board with cheese spread out, each with its own knife and then the accompaniments layered in between, so the whole board is food. And after a couple of minutes of people going at it, it doesn’t even matter what it originally looked like.
Lastly, if you are looking for something special that your friends/family will think took a lot of effort, I have two suggestions for you. First, buy a bunch of plain goat cheese, form it into 2 oz-sized balls in your (clean) hands, then roll them into freshly cut herbs (chives are great, so are edible flowers) or your favorite dried spices (Za’atar is awesome with this). Second, if you need a gift for an event and you don’t want to bring a bottle of wine, buy a basket of the Bellwether Fresh Ricotta and a couple mini jars of the pinot-soaked cherries. Just indent the ricotta slightly, pour the cherries on top, and you have an excellent adult potluck item.
Easy as that. You are a holiday food superstar. Go have fun.
Gordon Edgar loves cheese and worker co-ops and has been combining these infatuations as the cheese buyer for Rainbow Grocery Cooperative since 1994. He serves on the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition Committee and is a member of the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. Edgar has written two books on cheese—”Cheesemonger” (2010) and “Cheddar” (2015)—and lives in San Francisco with his adorable white mini schnauzer named Fillmore Grumble. He writes about grief, and sometimes cheese, at https://bit.ly/42IwYf0
Over the Rainbow Cheese Counter
Published on December 4, 2025
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