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FRENCH FRIED
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FEATURE ARTICLE

 
 
           
 

Excerpts On Cheese (continued)

What To Put On A Cheese Plate

      
  Camembert cheese labels
A sampling of
Camembert cheese labels
 

I hastened to ask my burning question: what to include on a cheese plate for special occasions? Here's Philippe's suggestion (quantities depend on the number of people and their appetite):

  • two or three kinds of goat cheese — one creamy, one slightly nutty, one with more taste and character but not too strong;
  • a Camembert, Coulommiers, Brie, or Fougerus;
  • a Reblochon;
  • a Pont l'Évêque, a Livarot, or a Pavé d'Auge;
  • a blue cow cheese, such as Fourme, Gex, or Termignon (which is only made in the French Alps and which is a natural bleu as opposed to one made by the addition of penicillin), or
  • a blue sheep cheese, Roquefort;
  • a Brillat-Savarin, St. Marcellin, or St. Félicien;
  • and one can add a Beaufort, Gruyère or Comté for those who don't really like cheese.

He recommends starting with the softer-tasting cheese, eating the blue or Roquefort in the middle, and ending with the goat cheeses.

What Cheese — What Wine?

      
Cheese platter and champagne
An air of festivity is
appropriate when
sampling French cheeses!
 
 

I showed Alléosse an article in a well-known women's magazine in which a top wine steward had set down his ideas for which wines to drink with which cheeses. After looking at the wine steward's list, I figured I'd have to take a pen and pencil to the table with me as I would never remember what wine went with what cheese. But to my great relief, Alléosse responded to the article with a common-sense answer:

"With a cheese plate, we need to remain festive and open-minded and convivial. Invite your friends and have each one bring a bottle. Try different combinations and be ready for surprises, both good and bad. Go to the regions where the cheese is made and see how the people eat them there and what they drink, and observe how they eat with gusto and pleasure. The main thing with cheese is not to follow a rule book but to passer un bon moment."

Fromagerie Alléosse
13, rue Poncelet, 75017 Paris
Phone: 01-46-22-50-45
Métro: Ternes


Author Harriet Welty Rochefort © 2004 Harriet Welty Rochefort — All Rights Reserved. Reproduced here with the author's permission.

The author of French Toast and French Fried, Harriet Welty Rochefort passionately admires and savors French cheese. Combining her interest in cultural differences and her love for fromage, in January 2004 she launched a series of talks on Franco-American cultural differences, coupled with a cheese and wine tasting. For information on dates and to reserve, check "Events" on her website, www.understandfrance.org.

Images: Harriet Welty-Rochefort in front of a cheese and wine shop in Paris, ©2004 Elisa Kitson (photographer). Mont d'Or (Vacherin) cheese in spruce wood container, from Syndicat Interprofessionnel de Défense du Mont d'Or (Besançon). A fromager tends to wheels of cheese in Beaufort (Savoie), © F. de La Mure / M.A.E., from the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères. Sampling of Camembert cheese labels, from (source unknown). Cheese platter and champagne, from Le Monde des Fromages. All Rights Reserved.

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