There’s regular buffets, there’s chocolate and dessert buffets, but have you seen a cheese buffet? Cheese buffets fall under finger food buffets since there’s not much utensil involved in consuming the dairy product. Places like Golden Corral and Hometown Buffet serve finger food on occasion.
Cheese buffets usually are found in wine tasting events, or it could be the other way around. Either way, cheese buffets are an experience worth having, and having knowledge of the different types of cheese served will make you truly appreciate the thousand year-old history of the dairy product.
Soft Cheese vs Hard Cheese
There are two types of cheese present in cheese buffets. Soft cheeses usually have less acidic content and these are good to pair with flavorful crackers. And yes, cheese buffets would be boring if there weren’t any other type of food to eat it with.
Hard cheese, on the other hand, has an earthy aroma, and a more rancid taste. These cheeses have undergone aging and the bacteria that helps make cheese produce these acids. Hard cheese goes well with fruits as the latter rounds out the flavors.
Of course there’s always the in-betweens and some cheese can’t be fully categorized as either hard or soft. These cheeses can go with any food, but all the varieties always go great with wine.
Cheese Buffets are Educational
You don’t have to worry if it’s your first time tasting Camembert or Gouda, because most cheese buffets are organized to help the public understand and learn about the different varieties of the product. Most cheese buffets have a theme – you may spend one day learning about Italian cheeses and the next about Swiss variants.
This is also a good time to familiarize yourself with the perfect combination of wine, cheese, fruits, or crackers.
Cheese buffets also have experts on standby to answer any or all of your questions about the food. They would usually go into detail about how these are made, what countries they’re from, the specifics of the aroma and the taste.
Just like wine sommeliers describing some variants of wine like sweaty armpits or a wet sock, you would be fascinated at the description of the cheeses.
Cheese Won’t Run Out
Cheese buffets lay out the different types of cheese and the servings look too small. Don’t worry about running out of cheese to sample – not many people usually gorge themselves on cheese and just focus on the taste. There will always be some left for the people at the back row despite the number of guests for a cheese buffet.
Make Sure You Don’t Have An Intolerance
It’s both sad and frustrating to have to deal with an upset stomach when you have an intolerance for dairy and dairy products. Make sure you’ve gotten yourself tested for gastrointestinal sensitivities as you don’t want to make the place more aromatic than it already is.
Some cheeses actually contain more than just milk, and individuals may have allergic reactions to these. There’s also a high amount of protein in cheese so if you have a predisposition for developing kidney disease or hypertension, it might be better to just skip the cheese buffet.