cheese and fruit tray

Cheese Board 101 With Work Sharp Culinary

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cheese board fruit meat

Cheese boards are perfect for Summer entertaining. With endless options, preparing a board at home can seem overwhelming, but it shouldn’t be. All you need to prepare a beautiful board at home is a platter, a sharp knife, and your food items.

Work Sharp Culinary
Work Sharp Culinary has created a new line of knife sharpeners, the E5, an electric sharpener, and the M3, a manual sharpener. In celebration of being picked up by Williams Sonoma, they generously sent me both these new sharpeners, along with their MicroForged Japanese Knife, and tons of other goodies to review for our Girls on Food readers!

To prepare the items on this cheese board, I used the Work Sharp Culinary M3 sharpener to sharpen my favorite paring knife. Since I use it so frequently, the blade on the knife was quite dull, using the M3 was easy, and restored my blade to it’s original sharpness (maybe even better than new!) I used the diamond rod to shape and restore the blade, and followed up with the ceramic rod to create a razor-sharp edge.

work sharp culinary knife sharpener cheese

I selected 4 cheeses for my board, a sharp cheddar, gouda, brie, and a madrigal cheese – a French baby Swiss. The super sharp knife blade helped me create neat slices in the cheeses, without them becoming gummy or crumbling. I arranged those on my platter first.

cheese board

Next I sliced up some beautiful plums, and added cherries, raspberries, and champagne grapes. I created small clusters of the fruits around the board, encouraging people to grab a few items at a time. Again, the sharp knife blade was essential to creating perfect slices of fruit.

cheese and fruit

To me a perfect cheese board is a balance of richness, sweetness, savory, and salty. The cheese and fruit needed some salty, savory elements to bring everything together.

Work Sharp Culinary sent me some Olympia Provisions Saucisson Sec – a French-style salami, flavored with garlic and black pepper. I used the Work Sharp MicroForged Japanese Knife to cut the salami into bite size slices. I added some gourmet pepperoni, and some prosciutto. I wrapped the prosciutto around some hard bread sticks, and folded it flowery shapes. You could also wrap it around pieces of melon or other fruits.

cheese and fruit tray

For the final step, I added some pitted olives, and some different types of crackers. Some other great additions for your platter might include dried fruits like figs or apricots, and nuts, like spiced almonds or walnuts.

Thank you Work Sharp Culinary for providing me with such outstanding sharpening tools! I was extremely impressed by the razor-sharp edge I was able to achieve on an older knife using the M3 manual sharpener. It was easy to use and took less than 2 minutes.

Williams Sonoma will also carry a proprietary model, the E5 Plus, which is graphite (black) instead of Rose Gold and includes the belt and guide upgrade pack (pictured above). It will be available through their site beginning 9/1/17 and is slated for their Winter catalog.

Work Sharp Culinary will be accepting pre-orders on their site beginning 8/11/17 with a special gift to the first 500 who order an electric sharpener and to customers who purchase the M3. The pre-order offer ends on 8/31. 

Whether it’s slicing through soft fruits, or crumbly hard cheeses, a sharp knife is key for achieving the optimal presentation.

Hopefully I’ve given you some great ideas on how to create a stunning cheese board of your own. Perfect for book club, ladies night-in, or a romantic dinner at home.

*Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own.

Ranae

I started cooking and baking at 4 years old, when I smashed an egg on the floor, while my mom and grandmother were making a cake, and gleefully declared I was helping. I spent the first 3 decades of my life in the sleepy mountains of West Virginia, before heading west to the desert, and the neon lights of Las Vegas. Growing up in a rural area, about 3 hours south of Pittsburgh, I appreciate the simple things – like a plump heirloom tomato, straight from the garden. Moving to a cultural food mecca has expanded my culinary horizons, introducing me to flavor profiles from around the world...and to the joys of being able to have a Bloody Mary before 1 pm on a Sunday. I love to travel, and try locally-owned restaurants wherever I go. I have a soft spot for tacos, sour ales, kombucha, and macarons. Keep up with my foodie-ventures on instagram, @HungryInVegas!

9 Comments

  1. Leanne Jacobs

    July 27, 2017

    That looks amazing! What a beautiful and delicious cheese board. I need to check out those tools.

    • Ranae

      July 29, 2017

      They were so easy to work with! Look for them at Williams-Sonoma soon!

  2. Chris

    July 28, 2017

    Did you find the guides on the handle to be helpful, or did you free-hand your edge? Thanks… plate looks amazing!

    • Ranae

      July 29, 2017

      Thank you! I should have mentioned it, but the guides on the handle helped me make sure I was getting the perfect edge! I was really pleased the results!

  3. Maria

    August 15, 2017

    This looks so perfectly balanced and to die for!!! Whoa! Perfection on a plate! Stone fruit balanced out the savory so well! I love that addition:)

    • Ranae

      August 19, 2017

      Thank you Maria!

Comments are closed.

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