Serve a French Cheese Course to Elevate Your Meals

Ah cheese. It’s pretty much the stuff of life. You don’t need much for dinner if you’ve got cheese and bread. 

Or cheese and pasta.

But cheese and bread is a smart go-to and it can make a no cook dinner.

Cheese and bread and perhaps a bit of fruit also makes an elegant course to follow your main meal. It’s how the French incorporate cheese into many meals.

Rather than top a recipe with cheese, they serve cheese as the star of its own course. Truly, there’s something so luxe about a meal of a simple soup, a green salad, a cheese plate, bread, and fruit.

Why Serve a Cheese Course

It’s an easy way to elevate a meal. Since French cheeses and good baguette are now easily available and affordable, a cheese plate is an easy way to level up a regular weeknight meal. 

It extends conversation. All too often we flit from the table too soon. Serving the cheese course encourages everyone to linger.

It can double as dessert. While the French are known for their amazing desserts, a weeknight meal is generally topped off with fruit and cheese or fruit and yogurt. My vote is for the cheese.

Don’t forget that a wine and cheese basket makes a great gift!

Ingredients

Want to serve a cheese and fruit plate at your next gathering or simple family dinner? Here’s what you’ll need:

breads – serve a French baguette and whole grain artisan breads, sliced on the diagonal. You can bake your own baguette or sourdough rye bread or buy some at a bakery. Good baguette is becoming easier to find in the States and home baking is easy enough that anyone can do it, so good bread is a must.

cheeses – choose three cheeses with different textures and strengths. Hard French cheeses like Gruyere, Comte, or Brebis are delicious. Then go a bit softer with Brie or camembert. Round things out with something crumbly like a bleu, Boursin, or goat’s milk cheese.

Experiment with different varieties and see which ones you like best. Grocers with a cheese counter will sell you just a small bit so you can shop many different varieties and find your favorite. 

Pro tip: you don’t have to limit yourself to just French cheeses. There are delicious cheeses from all over the world.

fruit – select fresh fruits that are easy to eat and serve and that compliment cheese well, such as apples, strawberries, or grapes. In-season clementines are a nice addition as they are so easy to peel.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Unlike the elaborate, American “charcuterie” or cheese boards of the 2020s, In France, the cheese board is simple, with plenty of space between the cheeses. Don’t crowd things.

For best flavor, allow the cheeses to sit at room temperature for about 15 to 20 minutes prior to serving. Arrange each of the three cheese on a platter or cutting board. If you have a cheese knife, so much the better. 

Avoid slicing the cheeses. Instead let each person select and slice his own portion. Keep in mind that one never cuts off the tip of the wedge. Instead slice a wedge of cheese like you would divide a slice of pie.

Serve your cheese course with wine or sparkling water.

You can serve a simple French cheese board with the salad after the main dish or at the end of the meal with fruit as a dessert. The cheese plate is an everyday treat that can elevate the simplest meals.

What to do with leftovers

Remember you can freeze goat cheese if you have leftovers and you can freeze cheese that is hard, like swiss-style cheeses. Soft cheeses like Brie don’t freeze well so you will need to use it up. I recommend you make a Tartiflette pizza.

How to Make the Cheese Plate Affordable

I’ve heard friends complain about the expense of hosting a large charcuterie board. While these are fun, they are a little over-the-top excessive. The charcuterie board is the Versailles of cheese plates.

Calm things down with a simple cheese plate. Here’s how:

1. Choose just 3-4 cheeses. You don’t need a lot of variety, just enough.
2. Make a plan for leftovers so that you can avoid food waste.
3. Shop your kitchen. Do you have some cheeses on hand already that you can include?
4. Shop the best store. ALDI, Trader Joe’s, and Costco all sell delicious imported cheeses at very reasonable prices.
5. Choose cheeses you really love. Unless you’ve got the cash to spare, focus on cheese you know people enjoy, other wise it will go to waste.

These are all steps in the Good Cheap Eats System that will help you save money!

What to Serve with Your Cheese Plate

These French recipes are delicious before or after your cheese course:

Catalan Meatballs – Boules de Picolat

Escalivada

Baked Chicken and Vegetables

How to Make Ratatouille in the Oven