Cheese makes Lydia Clarke cry. The co-founder of DTLA Cheese Superette is cutting into a French-style goat cheese called Shabby Shoe, and tears well in her eyes as soon as she starts talking about its creamline (the extra gooey layer along the bloomy rind).
Clarke, who co-owns the downtown store with her husband, chef Reed Herrick, and her sister, Marnie, gets just as emotional about cheese boards — the brimming party-size displays that she creates by the dozens during the holiday season.
“When you think about it, how many people worked so hard, how many hands did it take for these cheeses to get here?” says Clarke, who opened the shop at Grand Central Market in 2013 and a year and a half ago moved into a storefront on the corner of Broadway and 4th Street, next to their wine bar Kippered.
“I want to make sure that the cheese maker would be proud of the presentation and say, ‘Look at how beautiful my cheese is.’ It’s cool as a cheesemonger to be able to show that.”
A creamy wedge of Shabby Shoe from Blakesville Creamery in Port Washington, Wisc., named for the French goat’s milk cheese it was inspired by, chabichou.
(Jennelle Fong)
She also builds cheese installations — tables filled with several boards. The most elaborate recently was at a tasting for wine importer Skurnik: 8 by 3 feet of surface completely covered with more than 40 cheeses. “Every cheese in the case was there, and I stayed to replenish all day.
“And to talk about cheese. If anyone is willing to listen, I’m going to talk about cheese.”
When it comes to creating cheese boards, she says there aren’t strict rules, but she has plenty of tips, including the following: “Beware of where you set it up, because that’s where everyone at the party will stay.”
Here’s how she builds the ultimate cheese board.
How to choose cheeses
“I’m a fan of bringing everybody to the party: goat, sheep and cow,” Clarke says, referring to types of milk. “You could do a big beautiful piece of one [cheese] and highlight that, but for a statement piece in a party setting I like having all the different types.”
She considers a matrix of characteristics and choices: texture, flavor, provenance, seasonality and age/ripeness. “Something soft and creamy, something blue, I like having an aged cheddar or Gouda, something Alpine.” Any of these could be made with cow, goat or sheep milk.
“I’m looking at, what age is this Gouda? Am I going to use a Spanish cheese? An Alpine? Seeing how everything relates to each other instead of just ‘Oh, I like this cheese right now.’ It’s more about, how can i have the most [variety of] texture?”
The case at DTLA Cheese Superette in downtown Los Angeles has a rotating selection of 40 to 70 cheeses. Come to your cheesemonger with ideas about what you might like (hard, soft, Gouda, Brie … ) and ask what cheeses might go together on a board.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
Cheese at its peak
Flourishing microorganisms change the flavor and texture of cheese over time. They’re transforming the cheese even as it’s in transit to the shop. Currently, Clarke is nurturing several cylinders of Langres — a soft, creamy cheese from the Champagne region of France — until they’re at peak readiness for New Year’s Eve.
A Langres cheese is ripe when it’s deep orange with a hint of white “down,” barely tacky rind, creamy texture and lightly pungent aroma. The center of the Langres could be be slightly firm but with a signature well-defined depression, “la fontaine.”
Ultimately, nailing ripeness for any particular cheese — especially the soft ones — will depend on a conversation with the cheesemonger at a specialty shop or counter. Grocery store sell-by dates on Cryovac-wrapped cheeses aren’t a reliable indicator.
How much cheese per person?
Clarke creates large boards in various sizes, including 12-by-12 inches for six to 10 people; 1 foot by 2 feet for 15 to 30 people; and 1 foot by 4 feet for 30 to 50. A common board size for many is 12-by-18 inches, which could accommodate three or four cheeses. Expect to serve anywhere from 1 to 3 ounces per person.
How much cheese do you need? At least 1 ounce per person as an appetizer and up to 3 ounces if cheese is your main event.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
Timing and temperature
Give yourself two hours before your guests arrive to build a board, Clarke says. This accounts for having everything done 30 minutes ahead of time. Because when you’re hosting, “something will always get f— up. Something will drop, something will break, the dog will have an accident, you’ll bend over and your dress will rip. Something will happen. And you don’t want to worry about not having the cheese ready.”
You can wrap the board with plastic film and store it in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Cheese is going to taste best 30 to 40 minutes after you set it out. But at a party, “people might not attack the cheese right away, so serving it a little on the colder side is OK,” Clarke says.
This is peak gooey cheese: A ripe wheel of spruce-wrapped Rush Creek Reserve is spoonable.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
How to prepare your board
Clarke lines clean boards (whether they’re untreated or treated) with cheese paper to help keep the surface tidy, and it makes cleanup easier too, especially for soft, gooey cheeses. Parchment paper works too.
Then place any small dishes such as olives or pickles (see Accoutrements below) on the board first.
Framing your board
Always frame the board: Clarke does this by placing dehydrated slices of citrus along two opposite edges of the board (but not all the way around — it’s not a picture frame). “We’ve always got the dehydrator going” to dry sliced Cara Cara, blood oranges or other seasonal citrus, she says. “Dried citrus is so pretty, and they’re delicious because they’re like a chewy fruit snack. Blood oranges are starting to come in, those are maybe the most beautiful.” Clarke also has used dried kiwi as well as cherry tomatoes tossed in olive oil and oregano before they’re dehydrated.
If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can buy dried orange slices. Or use herbs, food-safe leaves or even colorful or decorative paper.
On the edges that are not covered by dehydrated fruit, Clarke arranges folded thinly sliced salami. “I take the whole piece of salami, I put my thumb in the center, and then I’m wrapping it around like a cone. Then it’s easy to place. When you’re doing it fast … if some go a little rogue, give yourself grace. It looks organic.”
Use dehydrated slices of seasonal citrus to frame a couple of corners of your board.
Folded slices of salami border another corner of the cheese board. (Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
How to cut cheeses
“I don’t think we need to be cubing cheese anymore,” Clarke says. “Don’t cube it. Just don’t do that, please. I don’t know if it sounds rude to say that.”
How to cut hard cheeses: Clarke slices wedges from slabs cut about 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick. With a knife, score the center of the cheese lengthwise. Use that as a guide to cut wedges in the shape of crepuscular rays of sunlight, with the rinds as the base (see photo below).
How to cut soft cheeses: It can depend on the size of the wheel. For small, medium or large wheels, carefully slice the top off the cheese to expose its paste — like its own bowl of lush deliciousness (see photo below).
Clarke might serve a small wheel in its entirety, with one small wedge cut from it, which shows people how they would cut it for themselves.
Large or very large wheels or blocks of soft cheese (triple-crème Saint Angel, for example) can be cut into substantial wedges and placed on the board with the creamy paste facing up.
Place a small butter or spreader knife next to the cheese (for large wheels of soft, runny cheese, Clarke provides wooden gelato spoons). Hopefully people will know that the knife stays with the cheese. “It’s not your knife,” Clarke says. “It’s the cheese’s knife.”
For hard cheeses, cut irregular wedges starting from a point at the top center of a slab.
For soft bloomy-rind cheeses, you can carefully trim the top of the rind (note: it’s edible). (Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
Respect the rind
“I’m a rind eater,” Clarke says. She leaves any rinds, wax or paper on the cheese for serving. “I love the pop of color. And I love having that be where people can pull a cheese out from the board and hold it like a stick.”
But “I don’t eat anything with words [usually printed on paper], wax or wood.” She suggests putting a small empty dish next to your board for any unwanted rinds, wax or paper (or, say, olive pits).
“If i were to cut this [rind] off, especially on Comté, you might look at it and taste it and think, ‘You’re an Alpine cheese,’ but part of that rind is also showing the age of it too. So it’s telling a story. If you remove something, you’re removing part of the story.”
The rind tells part of the story of the cheese (Comté Sagesse, pictured) and how it was made.
The rind of this Shabby Shoe cheese shows that Geotrichum candidum was used. (Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
Do you need a cheese knife?
The one tool Clarke recommends most is the multi-use cheese knife recognizable for the holes in its blade, which usually comes with a pronged tip. The holes reduce contact surface area and create air pockets between the blade and cheese. This minimizes friction, so that cheese doesn’t stick to the knife.
If you’re using a chef’s knife and cutting soft or semi-firm cheese, make sure to cut all the way down through it, then slide the knife out. Use a clean towel to wipe the blade as needed.
if you’re going to invest in one cheese knife, Clarke recommends the multi-use cheese knife, shown here at far left. The holes help keep the cheese from sticking to the knife.
(Jennelle Fong)
Find a focal point
Clarke suggests starting with a focal point for your board — what she calls “giving it an origin.” For a rectangular board, that’s usually in the center. “I start in the center and then let it explode from there.”
Often the spotlight goes to “a big chunk statement” of cheese — a large wedge or wheel of a double- or triple-cream such as Saint Angel, fromage d’affinois or, if splurging, Rush Creek Reserve (see 5 favorite cheeses right now).
If it’s a square or circular board, “I choose one side to create drama from.”
Then she builds outward from the first “soft guy,” say, and maybe a hard cheese “coming off the top and if there’s room another coming off the bottom of it. You’re creating a triptych story, three saying ‘hello.’”
“Fireworks” — Clarke creates the centerpiece for her cheese board with wedges of hard cheese extending from large wedges of triple-cream Saint Angel. She sometimes draws a diagram (pictured left) of where to place her cheeses.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
Find a flow
Everything should feel connected, with no space unfilled so that it’s abundant, welcoming and celebratory.
With the centerpiece cheese(s) on the board and bowls that will be filled with olives, pickles or condiments such as mustard, then you can see the “holes” — such as a space for a blue cheese or another “softie.” Cheeses don’t have to be separated; one could touch another.
Fill the spaces with accoutrements of your choice (see below). “Let it all overflow over the cheese,” Clarke says. Nothing should feel like an “island,” other than any bowls necessary for olives, etc. Think about what will taste great together.
Accoutrements
Accoutrements are pops of color, and they provide a break — both texture- and flavor-wise — between cheeses. Cornichons, olives and pickled vegetables provide acidity; membrillo (quince paste) and dried fruit, sweetness. Nuts and corn nuts have salty crunch.
“Having something with acid, something cutting the fat that we’re eating allows your palate to come back,” Clarke says. “And then with nuts and corn nuts, having different textures to go along with the creaminess is always nice, snacky and playful.”
For olives, she uses Castelvetranos seasoned with cider vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and chile flakes. Pickles are house-made. Nuts are always Marcona almonds (“the crunchiest”). Corn nuts are the fun factor.
DTLA Cheese Superette’s holiday cheese boards can feature a variety of elements, including cheese, olives, cornichons, nuts, dried fruit, meats, and garnished with dehydrated citrus.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
Add any dried fruit such as apricot, fig, cherries or raisins. Clarke avoids fresh fruit. “It’s generally a ‘no,’ unless we have a special request.”
That’s partly because of Clarke’s accoutrement philosophy. She uses only preserved, pickled and dried foods. “Everybody asks, ‘Gosh, how do all these things go together?’ Cheese is preserved milk. It’s all about preserving and extending the life of food. Dried fruit, brined and pickled vegetables. They’re the same thing, there’s one focus: saving all the stuff.”
A note on membrillo
Membrillo is a must-have on Clarke’s boards. She refers to the traditional quince paste as “cuttable jam” and says its sweetness goes with everything. “It’s sweet without being too sweet, has a unique texture, and the color is just beautiful, especially with cheeses with hues of a lot of whites.
“You could put a jam on the board, but when it’s substantial in size what will end up happening is that somebody is going to take that knife in there and they’re going to stab the triple cream or the blue cheese with it — cross-contamination.”
Cut the membrillo into triangles or serve it in a large square or wedge and put a knife next to it.
Dulce de membrillo is the traditional quince paste served as an accompaniment for cheese, cut into blocks or wedges to place on a board.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
A note on blue cheese
Nothing else looks or tastes like blue cheese, inoculated with a specific Penicillium mold and treated with a needling process that creates its distinctive blue-green veins. Clarke says she often hears, “Oh, I don’t like blue cheese.” But a big cheese board affords the chance for people to try something new.
The spectrum of blue cheeses is wide, from mild, creamy and sweet with no rind to salty, savory and pungent with a natural rind. “Every wheel we cut into is very different,” Clarke says.
People might be thinking of something “pre-crumbled on a salad they had 20 years ago,” Clarke says. But then inevitably “we’ll put something on the board and they say, ‘I didn’t even know I liked this. This blew my mind.’”
Bay Blue, a cow’s milk blue from Point Reyes Cheese, is a California classic.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
5 favorite cheeses right now
“I love this time of year when we get so many beautiful cheeses coming in,” Clarke says. “Comté Sagasse, Rush Creek, Brabander Reserve, Winnimere are special things that are in their prime because the milk was available in the spring and now the cheese has reached that perfect age — six months or a year and six months or even two years and six months” depending on the type of cheese.
This is also a time when people tend to splurge for the holidays. “Cheese is not an inexpensive thing,” she says. “It feels celebratory.”
Here are five favorite cheeses she’s loving right now.
Shabby Shoe from Blakesville Creamery. (Jennelle Fong)
Blakesville Creamery’s Shabby Shoe is a creamy, gooey goat’s milk cheese named after the French cheese chabichou (pronounced, you guessed it, like “shabby shoe”). Clarke describes this cheese, made by Wisconsin-based Veronica Pedraza, as “fluffy clouds of tangy lemon — almost a hint of lemon like lemon verbena — and the cleanest goat milk. The rind has the texture of a soft woodear mushroom. And the most beautiful creamline. When you cut into it, it’s going to be magnificent.”
Cornerstone from Parish Hill Creamery. (Jennelle Fong)
Rachel Fritz Schaal and Peter Dixon of Vermont’s Parish Hill Creamery make Cornerstone cheese with raw grass-fed milk from a neighboring herd of cows at the Putney School. Along with other cheesemakers in the Northeast they created this as an original American cheese (in the Alpine style), each using the same recipe but propagating their own cultures and encouraging wild rinds. “Like Comté can be made by many people, we now have a cheese from a certain region but not produced by just one person,” Clarke says. “It’s showing the expression — truly the taste — of a place, it’s just so amazing.” It’s pudgy, “boing-y” but still firm. “Look at this gorgeous rind, you can see it’s square. It’s such an impressive-looking cheese.”
Pardou Brebis made in the Vallée D’Ossau Iraty. (Jennelle Fong)
Pardou Brebis, a signature Basque cheese from the Vallée D’Ossau Iraty in the Pyrenees mountain range of southwestern France, is made from the milk of the famed brebis sheep. This cheese is aged by the family-run Fromagerie Pardou, specializing in Basque cheeses. The rind of cheeses of the Basque forests here have a distinctive scent. “There’s something magical that happens,” Clarke says, “with the air that comes off the coast to this pocket of dreamy forest. … Sheep are not the easiest of animals. They produce the smallest amount of milk, but it has the highest amount of protein.” That’s why sheep’s milk cheeses are so rich in flavor. “They seem subtle at first but are rich in depth.”
Rush Creek Reserve from Uplands Cheese. (Jennelle Fong)
Uplands Cheese Co.’s Rush Creek Reserve is seasonal. The Wisconsin creamery’s famous Gruyère-style Pleasant Ridge is made in the summer and available year round, but Rush Creek reserve is made in the fall and the soft cheese is so custardy it must be eaten by early January. Cheesemaker Andy Hatch was inspired by the coveted seasonal washed-rind, spruce-wrapped Vacherin Mont d’Or, produced in the Jura region of France. “When you see this cheese, snag it. It will cost you some dollars but will be worth it all. Andy makes cheeses that show the best of what the land animals can do. It’s incredible to see production of this cheese,” says Clarke, tearing up again. “Why can I never pull it together?”
Comté Sagesse from Marcel Petite. (Jennelle Fong)
Comté Sagesse is a pedigreed cheese from the mountains of Jura, where it’s produced from Montbéliarde cows by a dairy cooperative and aged for more than 30 months in local caves by Marcel Petite. The hard raw milk cheese is released after 2 1/2 years, and the extra aging results in rich, nutty, umami flavors, says Clarke. “That’s a wheel from 2022. The fact that somebody has been taking care of this cheese for all this time … it’s perfect and in its prime.”
Lydia Clarke is co-owner of DTLA Cheese Superette and Kippered wine bar in downtown Los Angeles.
(Jennelle Fong / For The Times)
