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TopHow to Host a Tasting Party
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Company’s coming and you need new ideas? Try something original: Host a tasting buffet where everyone can discover new favourite products! Here are a few tips for a fun and delicious gathering.
5 tips for the perfect tasting buffet at home
1Pick a theme
When we think of a tasting, we tend to think of fine cheese paired with wine or craft beers. Why not try something different to surprise your guests?
Here are some tasty ideas:
- Sausages and deli platters
- Spanish tapas
- Seasonal dishes
- Italian fest
- Chinese New Year
- Garden party
- Surf and turf
- English tea
- Cheese tasting
2Ask for a backup
Potlucks are perfect for fun, casual get-togethers. Guests will never feel put upon to lend a hand, and they will no doubt try to impress with their favourite recipes. As the host, be sure to keep the menu varied and try get the portions right. A potluck with ten guests doesn’t mean everyone should cook for ten! Instead, ask your assistants to make enough to feed about three or four—a much more realistic approach! Ask everyone to bring a dish that’s already prepared and ensure they pack anything they need—like an ovenproof dish or serving utensils.
3Get the kitchen ready
If you’re asking guests to bring a dish to your potluck, be sure to get your kitchen ready first. Place utensils and serving plates in view so guests will know where to put their cheese, pâté and other tasty treats. Same goes for spices and oils that guests may need to complete their dish. Leave enough room in the fridge for all the delicious concoctions and products. Remember: Don’t be stingy with glasses, napkins and dinner plates.
4Serve buffet style or prepare food stations
With so many new foods to discover, be sure to present every dish in a simple and appetizing way. Try setting up a few turnkey food stations: one for drinks, another for every type of food, and one for desserts. That way, your guests can serve themselves without having to wait for you. Identify every dish with a festive label and note any food allergies or vegan options. Arrange quiche, rillettes, salads, veggie pâté, hummus, terrines, and cheeses into bite-sized pieces and display in appetizing arrangements that showcase colour and texture.
5Get the conversation started
Ask guests to bring copies of their recipe to share with others so those who are interested can easily try it out when they get home. Or present each guest with blank tasting note cards so they can jot down what they liked and add comments throughout the evening!
Make Your Cheese Tasting a Success
Cheese tastings include several servings that, just like a full course meal, grow stronger in consistency, taste and flavour, moving from fresh, bland, mild, to full-bodied, with the strongest tasting served last. Serve cheeses in the following sequence by type.
Please consult Quebec's Specialty Cheeses list to know which cheeses belong to which families.
In what order should they be served?
- Fresh and goat cheeses
- Flowered or washed-rind soft cheeses
- Semi-firm cheeses
- Firm cheeses
- Blue-veined cheeses
- Hard cheeses
Plating your cheese
Simplicity and cleanliness are key. Here are a few tips when arranging your cheese platter.
1Never use metal, plastic or rimmed platters to serve the cheeses. Instead, opt for wood, marble or glass.
2Don’t let the cheeses touch each other. Leave cheeses whole and lay them out with their tags wherever possible.
3Use shape to determine a cheese’s place on a platter. Place narrow wedges on each side of a round cheese, for example. Outline where each cheese should be cut to make serving easier during the party. Portions should be small so that everyone can enjoy all stages of the tasting without feeling too full.
4Provide a knife for each type of cheese to avoid mixing flavours. Picking up a piece of cheese that’s just been cut is easier with a cheese knife that has a forked tip.
How to cut it
Different shapes call for varied cutting techniques so that rind and cheese are distributed equally. If the cheese is:
- Round or square: Begin cutting at the centre, moving outward to form triangles, as you would a pie or cake.
- Cylindrical: Cut it in parallel slices. Cut tubular pouches in rounds, and rolls in segments. If it’s large enough, cut each in two or four pieces.
- Small in dimension: Quarter it or cut it in two.
- A wedge of Brie: Cut it in strips parallel to one of the triangle's sides.
- Blue: Cut it in wedges, beginning at the centre. Each serving should have a “blue” part.
Tools
- Provide a knife for each type of cheese. Nothing is more unpleasant than attempting to use a knife already covered with leftovers from all sorts of cheeses.
- Picking up a piece of cheese that’s just been cut is easier with a cheese knife that has a forked tip.
- Tin or pewter labels with stainless steel stems usually come with small pieces of cardboard on which to identify each cheese by name.
Side Dishes
Serve small goat cheeses in halves or whole on small plates with a herb salad garnish. You may want to add some olives and grilled hot peppers. Dried fruits (whole or cut in strips), almonds and pistachios are the perfect side dish for pressed and cooked cheeses such as Emmental. Nuts, along with thin slices of pears and either fresh or dried figs, blend ideally with blue cheeses. If you are serving bread with your cheese, place a cloth in a breadbasket, add the breads (either sliced or whole) and pull the cloth over it to keep them from drying out.
Which breads to serve with your cheeses?
- Purists claim cheese stands on its own. Others like to serve it with a selection of breads.
- Place a cloth in a breadbasket, add the breads, either sliced or whole, and pull the cloth over to keep the breads from drying out.
- Serve baguette with fresh goat cheese; country bread with Saint-Paulin; whole wheat bread with more acidic cheeses; pumpernickel with Edam and Gouda; rye bread with blue cheese, and don't forget nut, raisin, or sesame breads, crackers and other bread rusks. Try to cater to all tastes.
Wines, Cider and Beer
First taste the cheese alone. Next sip the wine, beer or cider. Then try both together, concentrating on how they complement one another. You'll know they are well matched when aromas, textures and flavours go together. You may want to stick to one kind of wine but glasses should be small because it is a tasting.
Red wines do not generally go well with cheese because the grape tannin accentuates the bitterness of the cheese. When it comes to blue cheeses, you may prefer to serve mild dessert wines. While cider is the perfect match for Camembert, beers go well with a wide variety of cheeses. Serve pale and brown ales with goat cheeses, cheddar and Oka. Serve black beer with blue cheeses but never with goat cheese.
Expert Tip
No matter how well you prepare, there will always be plenty of food left over after your potluck. Why not give everyone a reusable plastic container so they can put together a lunch for the next day? Not only will your table be cleared away in no time, you’ll also cut down on food waste.
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