How to Build a Cheese Board That Impresses (Without Overthinking It)

A good cheese board isn't about expensive cheese or clever tricks. It's about choosing a few that play well together, giving them room to breathe, and surrounding them with things people actually want to eat. Get the framework right and the rest takes care of itself.

Here's how we'd build one at home, the same way we think about the platters we make in the shop.

Start with three to five cheeses

The sweet spot is three for a relaxed evening, five for a crowd or a celebration. More than five and it stops feeling considered. The trick isn't quantity, it's contrast: pick cheeses that differ in milk, texture and intensity so every bite tastes like a new decision.

A reliable spread looks like this:

• Something soft and bloomy — a brie or camembert, for the creamy crowd-pleaser everyone reaches for first.
• Something firm and aged — a good cheddar, gouda or a hard sheep's milk cheese, for backbone and a bit of crunch.
• A blue — salty, punchy, the one that wakes the board up. A little goes a long way.
• A washed-rind or a goat's — washed-rind for the bold (think funky and savoury), or a fresh goat's cheese for something bright and lemony.

If you're choosing three, take the soft, the firm and the blue. If you're nervous about the funkier styles, that's exactly the conversation to have with us in store. Raf is happy to talk you through what's eating well right now and steer you toward something you'll love, with no pressure and no jargon. You can come and taste your way through the cabinet before you commit.

How much cheese per person

For a board that sits alongside other food, plan on roughly 80–100g of cheese per person. If the board is the meal, push that to 120–150g. So for six guests grazing before dinner, around 500–600g across your three to five cheeses is plenty. Buy slightly more of the soft cheese and the cheddar, slightly less of the blue.

Build out the accompaniments

This is where a board goes from nice to genuinely generous. You want a mix of salty, sweet, crunchy and fresh so there's a partner for every cheese.

• Charcuterie — prosciutto, a good salami, maybe some sliced sopressa. Two or three is enough.
• Crackers and bread — keep them fairly plain so they don't compete with the cheese. A neutral water cracker, a seeded one for texture, and a sliced baguette covers everyone. Browse our biscuits and crackers for the ones we keep coming back to.
• Something sweet — honey for the blue, quince paste for the cheddar, a fig or fruit paste alongside the brie. These live in our condiments and pantry sections.
• Fresh and dried fruit — grapes, sliced pear or fig, plus dried apricots or muscatels on the stem.
• Nuts and pickles — toasted almonds or candied walnuts for crunch, and cornichons or olives to cut through the richness.

You don't need all of these. Two cheeses, some honey, a handful of nuts and a good cracker is already a lovely thing.

Arranging it so it looks the part

Plate the cheeses first, spaced apart around the board, and pre-cut one or two so people know it's open for business (a wedge with a slice already taken is an invitation). Then fill the gaps: charcuterie folded or loosely ribboned rather than laid flat, crackers fanned in a line, and the small things — nuts, olives, fruit paste — tucked into bowls or piled into the spaces between. Work from large to small and let a few things spill toward the edge. Boards are meant to look abundant, not styled within an inch of their life.

Temperature, boards and knives

Take the cheese out of the fridge 30 to 60 minutes before serving. Cold cheese tastes flat and the textures stay tight; at room temperature the flavours open right up. It's the single biggest difference between a good board and a forgettable one.

Serve on something with a bit of surface area — a timber or marble board, or a large flat platter. Give each cheese its own knife so the blue doesn't end up on the brie: a spreader for the soft cheese, a sturdy blade for the hard one. We stock boards and serving knives if you're putting a kit together, and picnic rugs for when the board comes outside.

Or let us build it for you

If you'd rather skip the assembly, our cheese platters and grazing boards are made fresh in store, matched to the number of guests and whatever's tasting best that week. (These are an in-store make, so they're not something we ship.) Order one for a gathering, or build a hamper with the cheeses, crackers and condiments you want and let someone else do the plating.

However you put it together, the goal is the same: a board that feels generous, gives everyone something to discover, and gets people talking. That's the easy part.