When it comes to choosing a mix of cheeses to serve at a party, Ina Garten follows a rule. Get three different kinds of cheeses that offer a “balance of flavors,” which usually boils down to something creamy, a goat cheese, and a sharp cheese, like blue cheese (per Today). And in her opinion, there’s one place in the world that’s just a supreme place to buy these cheeses: Barthélémy in Paris, City of Light.
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Cheese rounds and blocks stretch from wall to wall in the hundred-year-old shop. For someone who needs at least three different types of cheeses for a dinner party, it’s a logical place to end up. And when in Paris, the Barefoot Contessa loves to throw dinner parties. Buying food in Paris for a dinner or cocktail party à la Ina Garten is different than shopping elsewhere, meaning that she usually doesn’t go to the grocery store in Paris to find the ingredients she needs for her special dishes.
However, what the experience lacks in convenience, it makes up for in other ways. For example, it affords Garten the time to walk around her favorite neighborhoods in the City of Light. It also puts her into contact with shopkeepers who know her and who are personable enough to offer some helpful tips for choosing the party’s food supplies.
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What to do with the cheese
The Barefoot Contessa’s shopping trip through Paris highlights some of the foods she’s known to make for her dinner parties, whether she’s in Paris or not. Although cheese boards are served after dinner in France, Ina Garten loves to serve cheese platters beforehand because they take up an entire course of the meal — and yet, they’re simple and so “elegant,” she said in a Food Network piece.
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When she makes a cheese platter, she starts with some fresh fig leaves to lay down on the cheese board. The Contessa suggests that her fans try to find hydrangea leaves if they can’t drum up some fig leaves where they are. She uses these to create a lovely mat upon which she’ll place the different cheeses and snacks. Despite carefully choosing three cheeses with balancing flavors, they won’t sit in the middle of the platter. Large clusters of grapes will.
The cheeses, along with crackers and an assortment of dried fruit (like apricots or figs) flank the grapes to complete the cheese platter. The Barefoot Contessa is a proponent of the simple-is-better philosophy when it comes to setting up a cheese platter. Usually, she forces herself to go with a simple spread — and more importantly, to stop adding items to a cheese display before it gets to be too busy.
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Ina Garten’s cheese suggestions
While Ina Garten often chooses a goat cheese, a soft cheese, and a sharp cheese, the actual types of cheeses that fit into those categories may vary. On her website, she highlights some specific types of cheeses that might adorn her charcuterie or cheese plates. For the sharp cheese, she’ll go with a Cabot cheddar. Mount Tam is a cream cheese she likes, though the goat cheese could also serve as the creamy cheese, in this case. It’s the type of cheese she uses when she makes one of her favorite appetizers, fig and goat cheese toasts. Brie is another soft cheese she uses on her platters. Stilton, a sharp blue cheese from England, often makes it on her board, too. Pecorino with truffles will sometimes be an option as well. Additionally, when she sets up her board, Garten positions the cheeses with the rinds facing inward for a nicer setup.
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Finally, she makes good use of her cheeses, whether she puts them on the cheese board or makes them a part of another appetizer. Some of the Barefoot Contessa’s favorite cheesy appetizers include her goat cheese toasts and marinated herbed feta, according to Today. All in all, she gets a lot from her Paris cheese shopping outing. It’s easy to see why a stroll around the City of Light — with a stop-off at Barthélémy — counts among the best ways for her to plan a great cheese board for a dinner party.