(16) Happy New Year 2022, Happy Traditional Cheeses, marvellous training.

I have been talking about training before, but I would like to give you an effective method, my method…

I learnt to talk about cheese, that was the name of the title of the book that I wrote my training method in, as I said before, but before this exercise, I had established my method thinking of the product and the way I addressed it. This is good for restaurants, shops, and distribution/ logistic centres with only a few adjustments necessary as to the business involved.

Training session (carving at The Greenhouse 2012)

The first thing to consider is appreciation of the product by the person dealing with it. The easy way to start considering the product is to see the importance of it through the history of the world, obviously this works better in Europe and to a certain extent the Middle East. Then you can progress to the geography which leads to the economic aspect. In turn, you can then move on to its importance for your business. This part of the training should be continuous and must contain a nutritional part and timely tasting sessions. Any business dealing with cheese needs to make sure of its profitability, and in restaurant this means stock control and sales cost.

This part of the training is a good introduction, and it can be arranged depending on the nature of the business. For restaurants tasting sessions can be organised as part of a different session and profitability of the cheese offering can be talked about during a weekly staff meeting for example. It will be for you to decide and adapt to your conditions.

The second part of the training is nonetheless as important and is mostly under explained. It is knowledge of the product.

Cheesemaking as a subject is obvious, however, you need to explain it well, and preferably step by step for it to make sense. While explaining the diverse products that cheese is, or are, you will then proceed to explain classification and the law side, this is important in any part of life especially when talking allergies. The other interest of this section of the training, even to the displeasure of the Americans, is description of the recognised products. By this I mean recognised by the EU of course!

Even I would be able to comment that some products are on the list because of their economic value to some countries, the majority of them are really traditional. Even more so nowadays, since Brexit, when a big push to define the products better as to their ecologic value and traditional character.

This section is concerned only about cheese as a product, this should not be about specific products, this will come later when trainees have a good understanding of cheese.

The third part of the training would be specific to each business. It concerns attitude towards guests. Role plays can be organised and are one of the easy and best ways to explain the situation. Then you need to bring forwards some argumentations points for the staff to use when dealing with guests / customers. One of the most important points that I like to stress is never to lie, or use untruth, if you do not know then you do not, or are not sure. You never know who you are dealing with!

Once the basic knowledge of the product has been dealt with, it is time to talk specifics. This part I would call presentation of the product, and as such it will deal not with the way you talk to guests but the visual aspect and individual product knowledge.

Board making is one of the first knowledge to master or understand, families will be important to have success as well as practicality and easiness to use.

Cutting cheese has always been a skill essential, this is particularly true on a cheeseboard but is equally important in a shop. You should think as well to educate your guests gently, suggesting that they can cut cheese when inviting other people at home once you have explained to them how do it. When cut correctly, you will avoid wastage as well as presenting the product correctly, a win-win situation all around.

Plating is the next skill to be mastered, and this is good in restaurants as well as in shops where selection making presentation is a good skill to have.

And then one of the longer skills to master in this chapter is the individual cheese knowledge with specific information about each cheese that you sell, or cut, in your restaurant, shop, or business. This is essential to have understanding of the individual product for commercial purpose, any person selling cheese should know about its products, at least a minimum amount. And once again, remember that if you do not know, you do not know! Do not invent explanations, this will look bad when you are found out.

The very last part of the training is what I would call after sale. Basically, this is everything that you can sell / procure to your guests on top of cheese. This is important for any business as this will bring income and this is where you can have a higher margin.

The main part of this chapter is accompaniments, obviously. Bread, biscuits, crackers, marmalade, pickle, are the basic extra ingredients for a selection. Then you have, and even more important in restaurants, drinks, more precisely wine. Hopefully, when working in a restaurant, a sommelier will be handy; for shops it is always good to have some interesting wines and beers. Personally I would suggest to have some sweet wine and sherries as it goes well with diverse selections, Champagne is good for mark up.

The other part of the chapter is suggestions to guests, or follow-up. Make sure that they are happy with their selection. If possible, give ideas for recipes when working in a shop, otherwise double check their satisfaction, make sure that everything is fine when working in a restaurant. The follow-up part is where and when you suggest some explanations, some other drink, any other kind of extra.

It is important to complete this part of the training, only to make sure that your guests will be happy and eventually come back!

Overall, it takes time to complete the training and it is better to do it in group, however, some part can be done individually easily. It is made up of blocks which are academically of a low level for students. And it necessitate only a minimum amount of investment, willingness will be the main ingredient with time, as précised before.

So, you will find below a quick summary of the training program:

1. Appreciation of the product.

a. Continuous.

b. Tasting.

c. Nutritional.

d. Part of the business.

e. History.

f. Geography.

g. Economy.

2. Knowledge of the product.

a. Cheesemaking.

b. Classification / law.

c. Recognised products (PDO, PGI, …).

3. Attitude towards guests.

a. Argumentation points.

4. Presentation of the product.

a. Plating

b. Cutting.

c. Board making.

d. Wrapping

e. Specific product knowledge.

5. After sale.

a. Accompaniments (biscuits, bread, crackers, …).

b. Wine / drinks.

c. Suggestions to guests / double check everything is fine.

d. Follow-up.

Remember, your staff need to have a good time, they should enjoy their work to be efficient.

And as ever, give life to your taste buds, and above all, enjoy real cheese.