CHEESE tips TRAY

Serve about 2 oz (55 g) of cheese per person.

Remove from the refrigerator 2 hours before serving so it comes to room temperature and the flavours develop.

Everyone has their own taste in cheese but broadly I like to serve one blue cheese, preferably Canadian, one Camembert or brie type cheese and a fine cheddar if I am serving just Canadian cheeses. It is always best to go to the cheese store and taste and try before you buy. Here are a few choices:

Award-winning Celtic

Blue from Glengarry Fine Cheese is a wonderful choice. It is a soft creamy blue cheese with delicate blue veining and a limestone-coloured natural rind.

There is also the excellent Nova Scotia cheese called Dragon’s Breath, which is stronger in flavour.

I like a soft goat cheese such as Salt Spring Island White Juliette, made by David Wood, who used to have a food store in Toronto. It’s a Camemberttype goat cheese that softens as it ripens.

For a third cheese, try one of our fabulous Ontario cheddars or my favourite cheddar from the Isle of Mull in Scotland.