Board school

France has more than 350 farm or craft cheeses. Italy has more, Spain as many and the British Isles is catching up fast. The rest of Europe probably brings the number to around 2,000, but most chefs and waiters would be hard-pressed to name more than a dozen. So much choice, so little knowledge, no wonder the cheeseboard can be an expensive, wasteful nuisance to restaurants.

Joel Claustre has managed cheese at London's Michelin-starred Putney Bridge restaurant, where he is assistant restaurant manager, since it opened five years ago. He designed the black marble-topped trolley used for presenting it. He set up suppliers with the help of general manager William Smith. He is responsible for storing, handling and preparing it for service and, finally, he trains waiters to recognise, cut and sell it. "No chef de rang is going to touch it without three or four months' experience," he says firmly.

Looks, taste and drama
Eating a cheese course doesn't fit comfortably into Britain's dining-out culture. At Putney Bridge, Claustre claims that only one in every three or four customers chooses it. Often it's competing against chef Anthony Demetre's desserts. To justify itself, it has to provide looks, taste and drama.

"Looks" has less to do with the numbers on display. Claustre works with 30 or so. Les Trois Marches, a two-star restaurant in the Trianon Palace Versailles, has no less than three separate cheese displays. Troisgros restaurant, in Roanne, used to present an extra tray of seasonal goats' cheese. More important is the choice, the condition and the presentation of each item. A small restaurant or gastropub would do better to have five cheeses - or even one - immaculately maintained, than a mishmash of poorly chosen, drying, sweating, hacked odds and ends.

"Taste" is complex, dependent on the style of cheese, the season, its provenance, its production and its ripening, both by the maker and the cheesemonger who retails it to the restaurant. Claustre has to back his own judgement that one Camembert Fermier or Stilton or pecorino sardo tastes better than another. He is using similar tools of the trade to a good sommelier's in assessing quality.

In dining rooms where plate service dominates, the cheeseboard is the most interactive menu item. The waiter handling it has to double as craftsman, salesman, teacher, entertainer and psychologist. He cuts, portions and arranges cheese on the customer's plate. He draws them towards one variety rather than another. If asked, he knows where and how each piece was made - and he doesn't sound as though he's giving a lesson. He has to read whether his customer is shy, enthusiastic, bored, greedy or curious.

Planning - five main classes Cheese specialists work with five groups - all wide-ranging, some overlapping and some that subdivide. Inside these categories, age may range from fresh, for example some goats' cheese, to several years for Parmigiano Reggiano.

• Hard cheese: Made from cows', sheep and goats' milk, it includes British territorials (Cheddar, Cheshire, etc), Tommes, Parmesan, Swiss and French mountain cheeses (GruyŠre, Beaufort) and aged Italian pecorinos.
• Blue: Stilton, Gorgonzola and Roquefort (from ewes' milk) are three different styles of blue-veined cheese, but there are at least 20 different kinds being produced in the UK alone.
• Mould-ripened: Camembert and Brie spring to mind in a class dominated by French varieties. But British cheesemakers have introduced successful competitors, such as Sharpham, a kind of Brie made from Jersey milk.
• Washed rind: Generally small and medium-sized cheeses, more often made from cows' milk that are washed in wine solutions during the maturing period. Some can be sweet and relatively mild (Reblochon Fermier), while others can be strong, such as Munster and Epoisses.
• Goats' cheese: Made in all the above ways, but on a cheeseboard small, fresh to heavily dried (and often flavoured) individual cheeses are grouped together. Their taste depends on the time of year and the type of grazing. The season is influential too, although manufactured - as opposed to farmhouse - goats' cheese is produced to consistent standards.

A cheeseboard will usually strike a balance between these five groups. There's no rule as to how many of each there should be. It helps to provide a consistent theme. A modern British restaurant would emphasise home-produced cheeses, though it might include a few imports for the sake of contrast. At Putney Bridge, Claustre focuses on the French cheese he knows best, but leaves space for other varieties.

Buying, handling and storage

"Buy often and in small quantities that you can control" is sound advice. Putney Bridge has two deliveries a week. What's ordered should be ready to eat within a day or two at most. That presupposes suppliers understand the products and have cellars with controlled temperature and humidity. Cheese is perishable, and some of it is more tricky than fresh fish.

• In a restaurant open for lunch and dinner the cheeseboard has to be prepared twice. Refrigeration isn't a long-term solution for looking after it, but it's the best short-term fix to prevent spoilage and wastage.
• Whole cheese should be kept in the wrapping (often waxed paper) in which it is delivered.
• Cut cheeses that have been on the board for a service may be wrapped in film. Goats' cheese is an exception; lay it between a napkin or clean cloth so that it can breathe.
• Don't cut into runny cheeses until you have to. Something like a Vacherin Mont-d'Or (a washed rind cheese) is better left inside its wooden box.
• Nothing detracts from appearance more than cut, greasy or drying surfaces. Before laying out any cheese, pare any exposed surface that looks unappetising. Work with a razor-sharp knife because trimming represents wastage.
• To refresh washed rind cheeses, rub them lightly with dry white wine before displaying them and at the end of service before wrapping. This keeps them moist and in good condition.
• A typical evening service lasts four to five hours. To protect cheese as much as possible stand it on a cool surface, such as marble. Cover it with a transparent cloche if it's in view of customers, or a cloth if out of the way.

Joel Claustre matches Fourme d'Ambert with Jurançon

Matching food and wine is as much a game as a science, but it's often a safe bet to pick a wine from the same region as the cheese: Loire goats' cheese with Sancerre, St Marcellin with Burgundy, Oussau and Irouléguy from the Basque country.

Drawing advice from Putney Bridge's sommelier, Kamel Tebib, Claustre (pictured right) suggests Henri Ramonteu's Domaine Cahupé, Noblesse du Temps, cuv‚e quintessence from the Juran‡on to accompany Fourme d'Ambert.

"It's the oldest blue cheese in France. The blue is natural, not injected, It's creamy, soft, almost unctuous, not too salty compared with Roquefort," he says. "Before picking the grapes, Ramonteu breaks the ends of the twigs holding each bunch of grapes to get a greater concentration of flavour in the fruit. It produces a wonderful, intense, fresh golden wine with lots of length that is accentuated by the Fourme."

Arranging the board

It has to be practical rather than sculptural. Leave enough space between pieces for ease of cutting and identification.

Claustre works with pieces weighing less than a pound. It's a better way of reducing wastage. It doesn't focus the attention on one cheese at the expense of others. Handling is easier for the waiter.

Cutting: work with pairs of knives for each group of cheeses so there isn't any cross-contamination of flavours.

Plating and portioning

It varies according to how many cheeses are on display, and how many the customer chooses.

A popular choice, easy for a waiter to recommend, is to pick one from each group. In this case arrange them around the plate, beginning with the mildest and working through to the strongest - individual cuts can range from a few grams to almost 50g - say for a hard cheese, so that an average serving will be about 120g.

When a customer wants to marry wine with cheese, he may prefer to select cheeses that suit his wine choice, or from a region, or from a single category such as goats' cheese.

Inevitably, some addicts will want to taste a dozen or more varieties. If so, work on the same "five groups" principle rather than attempt to create a casein mosaic on the plate.

Divide the board into five areas

Each one reflects a group of cheeses

• The blues (back left): Roquefort (Carles); Stilton (Colston Basset unpasteurised); Fourme d'Ambert (from Auvergne); Bleu des Causses (from Aquitaine). Roquefort, from ewes' milk is most crumbly and strongest. The others, all from cows' milk, are smoother.

  Cutting notes: Slice all from the outer edge to the centre so that each portion contains "edge" and "centre".

• The hard (back right): Morbier (thin blue central vein); Tomme de Val d'Isère, pecorino sardo (ewes' milk); Cantal (Alpine cheese); Appenzell (Swiss mountain cheese); Ossau (from Béarn, ewes' milk); Vieille Mimolette (pressed and aged Flanders cheese coloured with carotene); Chevrotin des Aravis (medium-sized pressed semi-mature goats' cheese).

  Cutting notes: Slice from the rind to the centre as with the blues. Cut slices of Mimolette ahead of service because its shape and hardness make it awkward for waiters.

  Putney Bridge special: the Ossau is offered with a honey and black cherry preserve - how farmers in Béarn like it.

• Mould-ripened (front right): Camembert Fermier (from Marie Harel); coulommiers (Brie family, but runs less when ripe); triple crème (70% fat in dry matter, from master cheesemonger Philippe Olivier); gaperon (garlic-flavoured Auvergne cheese); St Félicien (small disc from southern France, honey-like taste); St Marcellin (in box, creamy cows' milk cheese linked to Lyons, but made in Dauphiné); Boulette d'Avesnes (not really mould ripened, but a brick-rinded small cheese flavoured with parsley, garlic and tarragon).

  Cutting notes: Cut wedges where possible.

• Goats' (front left): Cathare (from South-west France, ash and cross on one side); Fleur du Maquis (Corsica, with herbs, juniper and chilli); Buchette à la sariette (small cylinder); Charolais (Burgundy, medium fresh); Crottin de chavignol (Loire, flattened ball-shaped); Puligny St Pierre (pyramid shaped, ash-dusted goats' cheese); Valençay (pyramid-shaped from Touraine).

  Cutting notes: Common sense. Small cheeses may be served whole. Cut wedges from pyramids, slice across small cylinders.

• Washed rind (centre): Reblochon (flat cylinder from French Alps, best summer/autumn); Munster (from Alsace, strong flavour); Langres (from Champagne, cone-shaped, reddish-brown rind); Epoisses (spicy, tangy and can be runny); Val de Loubière (creamy, runny cheese similar to vacherin but made from goats' milk), Gris de Lille (powerful grey-pink, square cheese from northern France).

  Tip: Keep a little powdered cumin handy to sprinkle over Munster.

  Cutting note: Where possible cut out a wedge, but use a spoon for the very runny ones such as the Val de Loubière.