Elevate your favorite cheeses with star-studded charcuterie arrangements

Professional guides and classes in the art of meat and cheese boards provide lessons on how to up your pairing game.

Ever dreamt of putting together the perfect charcuterie board? Is there an hors d’oeuvres expert inside you somewhere, just waiting to be brought to life?

You’re in luck. Not only are there people who specialize in charcuterie board content and design, but there are actual classes taught by these professionals, offered so that ordinary folk like us get to partake in playing perfect hosts.

The Board Room, a restaurant owned by Elizabeth Turnbaugh in Libertyville, Ill., offers in-person charcuterie courses in partnership with Turnbaugh’s other business, My CharCUTErie. Patrons interested in learning the ins and outs of charcuterie arrangement can sign up for a pre-arranged class or book a private session with up to ten guests.

Arranmore Farm in Oswego, Ill., offers its own spin on charcuterie design for the uneducated platers, and so does Sharecuterie Grazing Boxes and Boards in Powell, Ohio, and Fromagination in Madison, Wis.

Wait — is there a pattern here? Does the Midwest have the monopoly on artisanal cheese and meat arrangement?

It’s true, the Midwest has award-winning cheese, but there are plenty of star-studded “dairy states” out there. A deeper investigation reveals Maryland has at least one such charcuterie board class, as does Placentia, Calif.

If you have done all you can to find a class in your area and have yet to, despair not: the online event company Elevent hosts virtual charcuterie board classes. Plus, in this undulant internet age, there are a plethora of online DIY guides out there for how to lay out the goods.

But which matters more: the quality of the cheese on the board or the arrangement itself? Consider the poll open — but you know where we stand. After all, Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery has a pretty stellar selection of charcuterie-friendly cheeses…

Enjoy the sprightly happenings of this colorful season, and send your favorite fall cheese board ideas to us at katiec@hoardscreamery.com.