Quickest shortcut to party food? A cheese tray. To make it worthy of your foodie friends, here's Bryan Bland. One of the cheesemongers for Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine's three shops, he oversees an artisan cheese-charcuterie bar at the company's Bar Pastoral.
PICK FIVE: "Cross a lot of boundaries," choosing multiple milks (cow, sheep, goat, water buffalo) and different styles.
TAP EMERGING MID-SOUTH CHEESEMAKERS: "They're trying new stuff, trying new styles." Bland likes Kenny's Farmhouse (Kentucky) and Meadow Creek Dairy (Virginia).
NAME AN "EPIPHANY" CHEESE: It's your top taste memory. Bland's? A Walter Rass Challerhocker from Switzerland. "It's what kind of got me into cheese."
PUT WHIMSY ON THE PLATE. "Bring out some nontraditional pairings." Bacon-bourbon caramel corn with Alpine cheeses, perhaps.
TOP TREND: Select cheeses all from grass-based dairies. "It brings a bright, clean flavor to the milk as opposed to some animals that are fed on grain."
