That’s what cheese said

Charcuterie cheese boards crafted with nuts olives berries and delicately positioned rosemary are all the rage on Instagram Although they are meant for good old snacking the thought process behind it is hardly casual Being able to pull it off takes talent and skill We bring you four chefs who are flexing it with their cheese platesCurated Cuisines by MonikaChef Monika Mahajan likes to pair her artisanal cheeses with spreads or dips ldquoWe use a lot of dried fruits such as prunes or apricots and some nuts in the platterrdquo The Antipasto platter includes jumbo olives veggie sticks fresh fruits like strawberries and grapes and breads and crisps ldquoMy goal is to plate cheeses for connoisseurs and combine it with a personalised story that they share with me This is my starting pointrdquogtgtgtcuratedcuisinesbymonika InstagramCall 9820468889Asorte GourmetAsorte Gourmet is an artisanal cheese and grazing board company in Mumbai that creates gourmet centerpieces Founder Anuschka Goenka started playing around with cheese when she was six years old ldquoMy grandmother encouraged me to try skewers of cheese and grapes that she prepared for her dinners partiesrdquo Goenka uses a combination of fresh flavoured soft cheese domes prepared inhouse every day and aged European classics like flavoured English Cheddars Dutch Goudas and French bries Her bestsellers are Truffle Piedmont Kerala Cracked Pepper Apricot Feta and Soffrito Herbs Some of the eclectic pairings include a drizzle of lavender honey on Asortersquos truffle cheese caramel slathered on blue cheese and strawberry jam with their house special Kerala Cracked Pepper cheese ldquoWhat fascinates me about cheese is that there is no universal norm as to what it should be like nearly every country in the world has at least one unique traditionallymade cheese attached to its culturesrdquo Goenka hopes to sample the Nepalese Chhurpi considered the hardest cheese in the world While all the platters at Asorteacute are 100 per cent vegetarian Goenka is happy to accommodate KETO Vegan and GF requestsgtgtgtasortegourmet InstagramCall 9321486240Chef GuntasGuntas Sethi Bhasin is a patisserie chef trained from Le Cordon Bleu London and the head chef at Chef Guntas in Mumbai where she specialises in custom cakes desserts and cheese platters Guntas curates a variety of cheeses ranging from soft and semisoft cheese to hard variants Because people have different tastes Guntas says she ensures therersquos something for everybody at the table ldquoThe first thing is to curate different textures and flavours with a choice of assorted fruits nuts cheeses and crackersrdquo The combination of mushroom and truffle with cheese is one of her new pairings She also recommends the truffle pistachio and goatrsquos cheese platter ldquoThe pistachio adds crunchiness while the goatrsquos cheese lends saltiness And the truffle brings it together by adding freshness and cutting through the richness of the cheese You could also serve sundried tomatoes and olives as accompanimentsrdquogtgtgtchefguntas InstagramCall 9740654123Karishma Mehta and Millie MitraKarishma Mehta of Bowled over by Kari and Millie Mitra founder at Milliersquos Artisan Vegan Cheese have collaborated to offer a fascinating selection of cheese boards Each limited edition of the spreads and crusted wheels are derived from plantbased whole food PBWF ldquoThese cheeses are cholesterolfree preservativefree and lactose and dairyfreerdquo explains Mitra The soft cheese spreads are made from cashew and tofu and come in flavours like burnt red chilli and garlic creamy original and much more The hard cheese is cashewbased and matures over six weeksgtgtgtbowledover by kari Instagrammilliesvegan cheese InstagramCall 9833105244