You're so vein

Cheese was high on Pub Food's agenda this month as the award-winning Blisworth Hotel - Florence and Larry won Ethnic Pub of the Year 2001 - hosted yet another taste test for the magazine.

There were 15 cheeses in total on the table including a Cornish Yarg from Lynher Dairies and a fantastic Shropshire Blue from Cropwell Bishop Creamery sandwiched between some excellent Stilton cheeses from Colston Bassett and St. Ivel and a range of Cheddars from Booker Chef's Larder and Larderfresh. All in all, a good turn out.

For Tony O'Reilly, a good cheeseboard is hard to come by. "Some pub caterers offer you small pieces of five or six different varieties when larger portions of three or four varieties would be much better," he said. A good Cheddar, a Stilton and a specialist cheese, like Cornish Yarg or Shropshire Blue would make an ideal cheeseboard, according to Tony, and there's no reason why they can't all be good British cheeses.

Tony longs for the days of old when some restaurants offered cheese trolleys, let alone cheese boards, and big chunks of the stuff were commonplace after a meal. But those days are, sadly, long gone, and Tony often squirms at what pubs and restaurants are offering their customers today - namely small pieces of cheese which are far too cold and, therefore, very often tasteless.

If a cheese is too cold, or too hot for that matter, then it is not being stored correctly. Cheese should be stored in a cool environment at the bottom of a refrigerator at between 5 deg C and 10 deg C and should be wrapped tightly in foil or stored in an air-tight container to prevent drying out.

So apart from poor storage - which results in flavour loss - what else are pub caterers not doing? Tony believes they do not market their cheeseboards effectively. It's not enough to simply state: '...and a selection of cheeses from our cheeseboard'. With so many different varieties of cheese available - and plenty of small local producers - there is no reason why a pub caterer cannot make a real feature of cheese.

Take the subject of this month's Inn Profile, the Stagg Inn at Titley, Herefordshire, the first pub to acquire a Michelin star thanks to head chef and co-proprietor, Steve Reynolds. Being close to the Welsh border, the Stagg offers a selection of cheeses including a number of speciality Welsh varieties like Skirrid, which is made from ewe's milk.

There are, of course, many ways of spicing up your cheese offering and being a more effective cheese marketeer. Instead of just announcing the availability of the cheeseboard, try describing some of the qualities of the cheeses on offer in the same way you might describe the puddings.

Why class the cheeseboard as one of the desserts or an alternative to a dessert? There is no reason why cheese cannot be eaten prior to dessert. Such a practice might encourage your customers to purchase an additional bottle of wine.

It is important also to remember that there are British versions of most continental cheeses so don't feel you have to offer a totally foreign cheeseboard. With the notable exception of brie, supplied by Booker/Chef's Larder, all the cheeses on offer to the judges were British born and bred and none of them really disappointed the judges.

One of the most unusual was a black-skinned Swaledale Old Peculiar from Glanbia Foodservice which, along with the Shropshire Blue, proved to be a star cheese in the Blisworth Hotel.

The evening was dominated by Cheddars and Stiltons which, while of excellent in quality terms, showed a considerable lack of imagination on behalf of the suppliers. Tony wants to encourage both pub caterers and cheese suppliers to be a little outrageous and not simply offer what is expected. Top marks, in other words, to Glanbia not only for the Old Peculiar (which has nothing to do with the beer) but for the creamy Lancashire cheese, and well done to Cropwell Bishop Creamery for the Shropshire blue. Unusual cheeses will create customer interest.

The supplier response was good and, as Tony pointed out, there were some excellent cheeses on the table for tasting and all from mainstream suppliers. Some of the more exclusive cheese makers, companies like Paxton & Whitfield and other so-called 'artisan' cheese makers, were contacted but none bothered to accept the taste test challenge.

For Florence Seale, who had agreed to be a judge, all the cheeses offered excellent quality. "The quality has sung out. The Shropshire blue is the best I've ever tasted and it's a cheese I eat quite regularly," she said. While Cheddar and Stilton make regular appearances on the Blisworth Hotel menu, a French cheese is always a possibility when it comes to offering something different, but Shropshire Blue is always available and never fails to achieve that 'wow' factor which is all too often missing from a pub cheeseboard.

Husband Larry normally dismisses brie for being too bland but on this occasion he described it as 'lovely'. Praise indeed for whoever selects the cheeses at Booker/Chef's Larder. "If I was served any of those on a cheeseboard," said Larry, pointing in the direction of the table laden with numerous half eaten truckles of cheese, "I would be a happy man."

Anna Cioffi, who is widely known in the neighbourhood for making an excellent aubergine and chocolate gateaux, was having difficulty. Being such a cheese lover and content with the widely varying flavours - from mild to very strong - on the table, she was finding it hard to pick an outright winner.

Administration manager, Rosella Bennett, thought that cheese number eight, Glanbia's English blue stilton, was far too strong for her tastes. She liked the Booker/Chef's Larder brie which she described as 'creamy' and she thought that product number six, an extra mature Cheddar also from Booker was mild enough to be a children's favourite.

Ian Nobes, older brother of Simon Nobes who, avid readers will recall, was the manager at the White Harte Hotel in Bletchingley, Surrey, was also a judge. Ian, a builder turned policeman, thought the overall quality of the cheeses was good. He too was a fan of the Booker/Chef's Larder brie which he described as 'very nice and very creamy'. He was also impressed by the Shropshire Blue and the Old Peculiar which he said looked and tasted good.

Computer student Gino Cioffi was partial to Booker/Chef's Larder's mature Cheddar, product number nine. He was not impressed by Glanbia's Old Peculiar which he felt lacked taste. Like most of the judges he liked the brie despite his own admission that he tends to go for the stronger flavoured cheeses in his day-to-day life.

And finally to my 10-year old son, Maxim, who long term readers will recall, was present at a cheese taste test held back in 1998 at the Deddington Arms in Oxfordshire. For Max, the best cheese on offer was Larderfresh's extra mature white Cheddar and Colston Bassett's blue stilton. While he claimed to like most of the products on offer, he reserved his utmost contempt for products number two and six, Lynher Dairies' Cornish Yarg and, surprisingly, Booker/Chef's Larder's extra mature Cheddar. Then he said that the Yarg had 'a good taste'.

You can't run a pucker cheese tasting without a few crackers which, on this occasion, were supplied by Jacob's (who else?). In fact, we had quite a few crackers packed in portion packs of two crackers, which was convenient, and then further packed in boxes.

It is advisable to choose biscuits carefully when preparing a cheeseboard and not to opt for products which are a little too salty. If the whole notion of 'cheese and biscuits' is just too common - and we don't mean 'common' in the snobby sense but more in the 'over familiar' sense - why not try offering locally produced breads instead?

Let's take a closer look at some of the judges' comments. Anna Cioffi had nothing but pleasant comments to say about all the cheeses but felt that number 13, a blue stilton from St Ivel, was a little too strong for her tastes.Rosella Bennett felt the same way about product number