A Jolly YOLO Father’s Day

If you are out there looking to treat a special male on Father’s Day, I have a suggestion.  Forget the tired old undies and socks or soap-on-a-rope gift ideas and make it a YOLO Father’s Day!

For a cheese-loving Dad, this will be inspired and so much more appreciated. His underwear/socks drawers are probably overflowing with unwanted presents anyhow. As for those awful soap-on-a-rope creations …. Enough said.

You could serve a special Father’s Day cheeseboard or platter as part of a family brunch, lunch, pre- or post-dinner. In fact, for cheese lovers out there any time is a great time for a well-balanced selection of cheeses.

It’s fun to plan it as well, and you can choose from a whole array of funky and affordable wooden boards, platters or plates. And Father gets to keep that when all the cheese is consumed.

Here are some practical tips for your cheese platter:

  • Think of a theme. Focus on the cheeses of the United States or Britain, Spain, Italy or France or other regions.
  • Choose one cheese made with each type of milk — cow, goat, and sheep’s milk.
  • Select different cheeses within the same family of cheese – such as distinct styles of blue cheese.
  • Use cheeses with different textures. Go for a soft and creamy cheese such as Brie, a firmer style cheese such as cheddar, Gouda or Gruyère; and a hard grating-style cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano.
  • Don’t crowd your cheeseboard. You don’t want to find your finger in one of the cheeses as you attempt to cut another.
  • Offer a different knife with each cheese. If you cut all the cheeses with just one knife, they’ll start tasting like each other.
  • Serve slices of baguette or crackers in a separate basket or bowl.
  • Choose plain (sourdough or French) bread or neutral crackers. Flavoured breads can overpower the cheeses flavours, but breads containing walnuts, dried fruit or olives always work well with cheese.
  • Be sure to serve cheese at room temperature. To do this, take the cheeses out of the fridge at least one hour ahead of time.
  • Serve before-dinner cheeses with savoury accompaniments such as olives, prosciutto, nuts and/or chutney and after-dinner cheeses with sweet sides such as jams, honey, dried fruit and toasted nuts.

Have fun putting it all together with your special male in mind. And perhaps you can print up some interesting info on the cheeses used and make sure to extend his palate by introducing a cheese he’s never tasted before.

The CEO and I are off to work from the Samoan headquarters of Food International for three weeks. We can’t import European cheese there, but YOLO already has a strong following with family and friends in Apia so we will go with a good supply. It’s mango season there so I can’t wait to see which YOLO product will match my absolutely favourite fruit.

Meanwhile, have a Happy YOLO Father’s Day all you dads out there. And don’t forget to add our scrumptious Spanish fruit pastes to your cheese platters!