Lady & Larder: How To Build Cheese Boards At Home

"We're the storytellers. Literally the way we sell cheese is by telling the stories of the humans that made them. For us that's a huge piece of the pie, and I don't think the cheese is marketable without talking about the humans behind the stories, so meeting them is a really big deal for us." — Sarah Simms

On the Being Home With Hunker podcast we have Sarah Simms and Boo Simms Hendrix from Lady & Larder.

Lady & Larder is a boutique cheese shop in Santa Monica, California. They are well known for their cheese boards, charcuterie boards, and fruit or vegetables boards, which are true pieces of art. (Need proof? Feast your eyes on these.)

Sarah and Boo, twin sisters who grew up in the world of hospitality and in a family who connected over cooking and sharing meals, talk about how they've always had a dream to work together. So, they melded Boo's creative and design work with Sarah's work as a private chef (along with their deep love for cheese), and Lady & Larder was born.

In this conversation, they say that they are storytellers — that the way they sell cheese is by telling the stories of the humans who made them. For them, this is a huge piece of the pie.

They share expert tips on how people can build their own cheese and charcuterie boards, including how much food you'll need, and why it's important to source locally and seasonally when possible. They also share pairing tips — which drinks pair best with certain cheeses.

Oh, and we also touch upon a hot button topic: how we should be wrapping and storing our cheese.

So, if you love cheese and charcuterie boards, this conversation is for you. (And, we actually do know that you love these boards: according to data collected from Eventbrite, the number of events in 2022 dedicated to charcuterie board building increased by 89% over last year, grew by nearly 300% from 2019!) You'll also want to hear what board trend they are excited about as we move into the new year.

Click here to listen to our conversation on Being Home With Hunker.

To learn more about Lady & Larder, visit:

• Website: Ladyandlarder.com
• Instagram:
  @ladyandlarder
• Take
  Their Class: Virtual Cheese and Charcuterie Board Class
• Virtual and In-Person Cheese Board Building
  Workshops: Find Out More
• Send a Gift: The Gift Shop

‌(Edited slightly for clarity)‌

Laurie Gunning Grossman:

You are from the world of hospitality. Your grandfather had many restaurants, and you still have restaurants in your family, so it's in your blood. And you guys have said that you've had every position in the restaurant business. So when you created Lady & Larder, what was the impetus for that for you?

Sarah Simms:

I feel like we wanted to do something together. We knew we wanted to work together, that was a dream for us. And I'd been working as a private chef for about 10 years. Boo was doing a lot of creative and design work, and we brought the two things together. The culinary and the design. And Lady & Larder was born. It was something that didn't exist that we wished existed, so we built it.

Laurie:

I love it. And then Boo, did you guys have a background in cheese as well, or did you guys have to do a deep dive into cheese?

Boo Simms Hendrix:

Sarah had at that point been private cheffing and gone to culinary school and been around it. Obviously, both of us cheese fans for life, we love cheese. But I think Sarah had dug deep into it, I think for a chef. And then I think at this point in your life, your cheese, your level of cheese knowledge is I think we both definitely learned a lot more in the last few years than we did before. Sarah's also very involved in the cheese community and works with a lot of different makers.

Sarah:

Yeah, we've been cheese fans since we could eat, so definitely cheese was not a new thing when we started the shop. We were cheese lovers from the start.

Laurie:

Now did you guys, when you were growing up did your family have the fancy cheeses or did you guys have the port wine cheddar cheese from the grocery store, which is what my family had, my dad loved-

Sarah:

My dad loves it. Yeah. Our dad was also an easy cheese fan out of the spray can.

Laurie:

Yep. Same.

Sarah:

I'm not judgy when it comes to cheese, there is a place for all cheese. I love American cheese when you want that melt.

Boo:

But to answer your question, our household had, I think the full spectrum. My parents always used really nice. I remember we had a lot of blue cheese and salads growing up and a lot of things that were probably, and it was kind of like this spectrum of user-friendly cheeses and some that are not so. And so we had everything from, I swear, the pork cheese and the nicer stuff. And so we really appreciated it.

Sarah:

But also, when we were younger, the American cheese industry, I don't want to say didn't exist, but it really didn't like, it's only about 25 years old.

Laurie:

Oh really?

Sarah:

So just in the last 25 years, has American cheese become like–

Boo:

What it is right now.

Sarah:

I think at the cusp of being something super great and there's been a couple decades under our belt now of making good cheese here domestically, but it's not something that's always existed in, I would say the first 15 years of our life. The majority of fancy cheese you were eating was imported cheese.

Laurie:

Yes.

Sarah:

Always.

Laurie:

Right.

Sarah:

Or a processed, even the blue cheese that we ate, I can still picture it. It's like, what was that brand? It was like Treasure Cave. Came in pre crumbles in a container. And then when it was fancy blue cheese, it was a piece of stilton. It was not domestic by any means. It was always an imported product. And our shop is a 100% domestic. So we have a business that probably couldn't have existed 30 years ago.

Laurie:

So are you traveling all around and meeting cheesemakers throughout the United States and getting your hands in it as well?

Sarah:

That's the dream. We like to do that as much as we can. The last couple years it hasn't been as possible. So we've done a lot of digital meetups and Zooms and meeting people on screens like we are with you today.

Laurie:

Right.

Sarah:

But the dream is to travel and visit everyone in person when we can. For sure.

Boo:

We just got [to] the Petaluma area.

Sarah:

Yeah. Northern California is a mecca for cheese.

Boo:

And we had such a good few days just with some of our favorite cheese makers and just really nice to spend time with these people and meet their families and see where they live and what their community's like and kind of understand what their business model is. And for some people, for a lot of people it's a family run businesses. You have multiple generations and different people involved. And it's really cool just to understand. I think for us, we consider ourselves kind of the middle person in helping people learn more about where the product comes from. And so it's nice when we can experience it firsthand.

Sarah:

And I would really take middle person and go to the next place, which is like we're the storytellers. Literally the way we sell cheese is by telling the stories of the humans that made them for us. That's a huge piece of the pie. And I don't think that the cheese is marketable without talking about the humans behind the story. So meeting them is a really, really big deal for us.

Laurie:

Yeah. I have to say as a person, me who loves cheese, it sounds like a dream.

Sarah:

It is.

Laurie:

You guys must be having fun. Here's a statistic that I read about, and I wrote this down. According to data collected from Eventbrite, the number of events in 2022 dedicated to charcuterie board building increased by 89% over the last year and grew nearly 300% from 2019. So this is amazing. People are wanting to make those cheese and charcuterie boards. So I'd love to talk to you a little bit about this. Do you guys, by the way, do you call it a charcuterie board? If it's a charcuterie board, is it only meats, or can it be cheese too?

Sarah:

Technically, yes. I'd love that you asked that question because the word is–

Boo:

Misused.

Sarah:

... misused on the internet to be a charcuterie board, there has to be charcuterie. Do you have to have meats.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Sarah:

There's meats of some kind. Pate, salami, if it's a vegetable board, it's not a charcuterie board. If it's just cheese, it's not a charcuterie board. So yes, the term we love, the education part is huge and it's a fun word to say. So I get why people like it. But not all boards are charcuterie boards.

Boo:

Your candy board is not a charcuterie board.

Sarah:

It's not. It's not.

Laurie:

Yeah, that's right. It's just a board.

Sarah:

It's a candy board.

Boo:

Yeah.

Laurie:

Yeah, which by the way sounds amazing.

Boo:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Yeah.

Laurie:

With Lady & Larder. Your cheese boards are insanely gorgeous through hunker. We've had a few of them at some of our events at Hunker House, which is in Venice, and they're so beautiful and you make it look so artistic. There's honeycomb and berries and herbs, flowers, it's just in there stacked on each other. It looks so good. So I want to get into this a little bit because I feel like there is an art to making these boards. Can you share a few tips on how to create a beautiful cheese and charcuterie board? Maybe walk us through the process a little bit, maybe share some tips on how people can build these boards, especially during this holiday season.

Sarah:

I feel like number one is sourcing intentionally though taking the time to go out and support the makers who you want to. I don't just go to your basic grocery store and buy everything there. If it's at all possible, go support your local baker for the bread or the crostini and the baguette and go to your local cheese shop and find out what's ripe and amazing that day. That's kind of, for me, the biggest difference about buying cheese at a grocery store versus a cheese shop with a cheesemonger is that you're going to tell that monger, I'm serving this cheese on Saturday and they're going to be able to go into the case and pull what is maturing and perfect for you on Saturday versus when you're buying at a grocery store, they're just kind of bulk cutting a wheel at any phase of its life and you're getting it either precut that's been sitting in black and plastic wrap, or you're just not getting that kind of attention to detail that you get when you talk to someone that's tasting and cutting and working with cheese all day.

Laurie:

Okay, I love it.

Boo:

You can also provide the cheesemonger with some information about who your audience is. I think they can help direct you in the types of cheeses too, because there is such a big range have, I think gateway kind of crowd pleaser cheeses and then the stuff that's a little more specific to certain taste, right?

Sarah:

And then for the accompaniments, we love working just as seasonal and as local as possible. So if you're not sure what's in season near you, we always recommend finding a farmer's market because that's the best way to get the pulse on what's going to taste the best. That's going to be the best. So for us right now it's like blue persimmons and all the varieties of apples and pears that are being harvested, that stuff is going to be like our-

Boo:

Citrus is creeping in.

Sarah:

... citrus is starting to creep in. Yeah, the first Kishu Mandarins were at the market this morning and Cara Caras and then in a month or two we'll see blood oranges and that's how we kind of decide what to put with the cheese. We try and pick things that are in season because they ultimately taste best.

Laurie:

Oh my God. Sounds amazing. And then do you feel like there's anything that sort of tips it over the edge as far as the way it looks, the presentation and the artistry? Is it you add some herbs on top or is if you always add some edible flowers, it will be amazing, or do you have anything like that?

Boo:

I love flowers on everything. Absolutely, I think a big part of it is that we really celebrate the imperfections and what kind of makes things different. Leaving stems on certain things or celebrating shape and things that kind of draw the eye and look a little different. I think with cheese boards, that's kind of what makes them look kind of romantic and special is that they have this kind of imperfect perfection thing going on, which is really lovely.

Sarah:

And each one's different. They're like a floral arrangement. Not everything is so overly structured and exactly the same each time. We use weight specs when we're building out the portions, but the mixture of the items that are on it is going to change every day and the layout's going to be slightly different depending on the artistry of the person that's making it. And we kind of have a base standard and then each board that it makes different, I don't think I've ever made one that's exactly the same in six and a half years.

Sarah:

There are certain things like odd numbers look really great–

Boo:

Visually when you're picking out–

Sarah:

And fresh herbs always make it feel pulled together at the end. And this time of year, everyone's got poultry herbs and there's sage or rosemary. Those sturdier herbs do a really beautiful job of adding a little bit of finesse and polish to the finished board.

Boo:

I think a big note for that is anything we put on the board we just make sure for the most part is edible. So as far as plants and things that you'd be adding, you want to just make sure they're safe to eat putting them.

Sarah:

Yeah, and that's a good note for the flowers. If you're working at the farmer's market or you're buying flowers, edible flowers from a farmer, you just want to make sure that you're buying something that's no spray and asking them the methods in which they were grown. That kind of goes back to the thoughtful sourcing and that's with everything on the board is like don't be afraid to ask questions and ask for samples and-

Boo:

Try the fruit before–

Sarah:

Try things.

Boo:

... you buy it.

Sarah:

Try things because that's how you ultimately are going to end up with the best products.

Laurie:

And then when you guys are creating these boards or through your company, do you also work with pairings? Is that something that you have also learned about as far as what goes well with the cheese and the charcuterie or even a veggie board as far as wine or kombucha, beer? How do you recommend the drinks for these?

Sarah:

So my general rule of thumb is drink what you like and don't worry too much about the pairing. In the summer, I'm only drinking rosé. Okay, that's care what I'm eating, it's rosé, right?

Laurie:

Yeah.

Sarah:

If you're worried really concerned about the pairing in general, I think the most food friendly, peace friendly wine in existence is probably a high acid white like an Albariño.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Always delicious. Always goes great. In general, if you're working with whiskey or beer and you're worried about the pairing, a good rule of thumb is to pair based on intensity. So if it's a big ABV beer darker, huge, you're going to go with something bigger on the cheese side that tends to work well. I wouldn't serve a blue cheese with a really delicate wine or champagne.

Boo:

Yeah, just wipe it out.

Sarah:

It's going to wipe your pallet out. You're not going to get to taste what you're hoping for there.

Boo:

So another good rule is like don't serve anything you haven't tried. Try everything, get a feel for what you think is good and what you think is good. Your guests are probably going to think is pretty good.

Sarah:

And at the end of the day, if it's delicious food and wine and your friends.

Boo:

Nobody cares about the pairing. You're having a great time.

Sarah:

Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

Laurie:

Yeah.

Sarah:

But it is fun if you want to mess around with pairings and you're really into the idea of that.

Boo:

The seasonality I think is a good theme.

Sarah:

But also, sometimes it's a big difference on whether you put the cheese in your mouth first and then you chase it with the sip of the beverage versus having the beverage first and then a bite of cheese or sometimes they're better together in your mouth at the same time. All three of those interactions can be completely different. The order in which you're eating the combination. So play around with it. We come up with new combinations that we like all the time. And like we said, it's all very seasonally focused and mood focused. What are you in the mood for today? Do you're looking to be comforted by your cheeseboard?

Laurie:

Yes.

Sarah:

What's the vibe? Is it cold outside?

Laurie:

Yeah.

Sarah:

That's what we go with everything.

Laurie:

I'm always looking to be comforted by my cheeseboard. I do want to be comforted by my cheeseboard. I do.

Now, how do you figure out how much cheese per person or how much food to put on a board per person?

Sarah:

Well, it depends on what else you're serving. So is it going to be an appetizer portion and then you're putting this out followed by a full meal is the cheeseboard the actual meal? Because that can happen for us, which we do that all the time. Cheeseboard is dinner. So it depends on generally if you're serving it as an appetizer, maybe it's the only appetizer and you're going into a dinner, you just need a couple of ounces per person. Maybe two ounces of cheese and an ounce of charcuterie with a couple of accompaniments. I think most people that don't work in food have a really hard time figuring out portioning. And that goes with shopping in general. It's sometimes hard to figure out what the right amount is. It's 100% of the time less than you normally think. I sincerely hope that. I think if you practice quality over quantity. Especially depends on the cheese you're picking. If you're buying really rich cheese, you don't need very much to make impact and to satiate someone.

Laurie:

Right.

Sarah:

Again, depends on the combinations and what other things are at play. But I also, I tell people this with wine too. If there's extra, are you going to be sad about it? Absolutely not. You can never have too much wine around the house and extra cheese. So if you're worried, get a little bit extra but you really just need a couple ounces per person.

Laurie:

And if there are leftovers, are you proponents for wrapping up the cheese a certain way with the waxy cheese paper? Are you ever saying do not wrap it in plastic wrap please.

Sarah:

This is such a hot button topic. I love that you asked that because there's very opinionated sides on how to store cheese and in general cheese is a living, breathing thing with live microbes on the surface. So whatever you wrap it in, it can take on the flavor of which is why there's a lot of people that are like, "Don't wrap it tightly in plastic wrap because A, the cheese can't breathe and it'll start to taste like plastic." True, true, true. But short-term, completely fine. If you're going to wrap it and then eat it tomorrow, you're fine. If you're going to be storing cheese for a little bit. I always tell people that drawer that says the deli meat drawer, a lot of those have humidity settings. If you can control the humidity, cheese likes 85 humidity reading. It doesn't want to be too dry. It'll dry out and crack.

It likes a little bit of moisture. It likes air circulation but not too much because that can be damaging to a delicate rind. But in general, if you can put it in a container that has breathable, that's why the wax paper's popular is like it's porous, it's breathable, it doesn't impart too much flavor on the cheese. And if you have something that you're buying that's maybe you go to the grocery store and it's like a hunk of Parmesan that they cracked the wheel 30 days ago and it's been wrapped in the case for a month and you get it home and you unwrap it and it sort of smells like Saran wrap, which is very possible because it's been wrapped in the classic for a couple of weeks. Then all you do is you just take the doll side of your knife, and you just scrape the very top edge.

Any edge that's been touching the plastic off very tiny amount, just the surface. And that should clean the cheese up entirely. That's the same if you see anything funky on your cheese. Mold and cheese are very much like–

Boo:

Friends.

Sarah:

... friends. So it's not something to be afraid of. Obviously, if you don't like the smell of it and something's very off to you, don't be scared to not eat it, but it won't hurt you. Most cheese has some form of mold happening on it.

Boo:

And then anything you store with. I've made this mistake before at the end of the night if I try to put all, you're just trying to wrap your board up what's leftover and if you put anything briny olives or pickles, your cheese will taste like olives and pickles and so you don't want anything like that kind of touching it and separate that stuff.

Sarah:

And if you do have a strong really pungent cheese, like a wash-rind cheese, blue cheese is interesting. You always want to wrap that separate because the mold on your blue cheese can jump if it's wrapped in with other a cheddar or something. But yeah, those are just basics can definitely, if your cheese has not been cut into, if it's a wheel of a Brie style cheese, you can ripen that in your fridge at home and every day that it sits in your fridge you'll get a little bit oozier and riper. And you can decide at what date and time you'd like to eat yours. You like it oozy and slightly funky, earthy. Do you like it firm and mild still on the young side. All its complete preference, but we always want people to know the golden rule, which is to enjoy your cheese and charcuterie at room temperature. So pull it out an hour before you're going to eat it. If you're going to do anything, do that so that you get all of the flavor and the smell and the texture.

Boo:

The taste. It's totally different.

Sarah:

Yeah, it's like drinking a very cold wine and as it warms up, you get all the aromas coming-

Boo:

Kind of heat.

Sarah:

... out of the glass thing with cheese. You want it to really show off all of its best parts and when it's at room temperature, I can do that.

Laurie:

Love it. I was going to ask you about that, how long it could sit out before you serve it to people. So at least an hour.

Sarah:

At least an hour.

Laurie:

Let it get to room temp.

Sarah:

Beautiful.

Laurie:

Then the flavors really come out. Oh, I love it. Are you guys making boards for your own personal use all the time? Are you entertaining and breaking out the boards?

Sarah:

My cheese at home tends to be the exact opposite of what you see here. It's a very simple, just a big chunk of cheese on a plate. Purist. It's very purist. Yeah. Usually, we pick one thing at a time and really kind of get into it. It depends. I feel like right now-

Boo:

It's something mood based, yeah.

Sarah:

Its mood based, yeah.

Laurie:

Okay.

Sarah:

We'll do vertical tastings too. Sometimes it's fun if you have a maker that does a cheddar that's six months old, two years old, and five years old to serve all three together so you can taste the cheese at different ages in its life.

Boo:

Yes. That's fun.

Laurie:

I love it.

Sarah:

It depends on the mood. Yeah.

Laurie:

So fun.

So are you predicting any board building trends in the new year? I mean, how about those butter boards?

Sarah:

For the people that are into the butter boards. That's great. It's about giving butter the place it deserves in the spotlight because in our shop we treat butter like cheese. Literally, in some of our pairings we'll serve it as a course where you just are eating the butter and a lot of people look at us, you're just going to have me eat this butter.

Boo:

And I just try it.

Sarah:

And as Americans we're used to, they're melting it or putting a tiny bit on toast, but not-

Boo:

Low quality butter.

Sarah:

And real proper cultured butter that's made with beautiful salt desserts.

Boo:

It's a lot like cheese.

Sarah:

To be respected like cheese.

Boo:

Yeah.

Sarah:

So I'm excited that there's been a tension put on butter just so that people start asking questions and looking into producers that make really rad butter.

Boo:

Butter needed rebrand for a while, I feel like-

Sarah:

Europeans have always understood, but here we just had such margarine. Yeah-

Boo:

Yeah, incredible.

Sarah:

... it's great. Can't believe it's not butter.

Boo:

So much everything that wasn't butter.

Sarah:

But once you have good butter. I dare you to try to eat anything else, it's just like-

Boo:

It's not the same.

Sarah:

Yeah. Same with good cheese, same with good wine. All the things.

Laurie:

Yeah. Well, I am with you on the butter, and I did try making a butter board with my son. He was going to a party, so we made a butter board. It was delicious, I have to tell you. So good. I'm all for delicious butter. We drizzled a little honey, and I don't know, just a couple little things on it and it was heaven.

Sarah:

Yeah, the fact that butter's getting some attention is just very pleasing to me.

Laurie:

But the good butter we're talking about.

Sarah:

Yeah, the good butter. The good butter. I mean if you're going to just be eating butter straight, make it the good butter. And if people are wondering what the good butter is, come to our shop. We are going to introduce you to something that's made by a friend of ours up at Stepladder Creamery in Cambria. They make a beautiful, cultured butter that'll just like knock your socks off. Vermont Creamery makes a great one that you can find at most big grocery stores. The cultured butter. That's lovely. Vermont. There's a couple of incredible domestic producers of butter.

Boo:

You can also make your own butter at home.

Sarah:

You can go to the next level and make your own butter, but there's a lot of really great butter out there. So dabble, ask questions.

Laurie:

Yes. Oh, I like it. I know we talked a little bit about hospitality being in your blood and everything. What were family meals when you were growing up?

Sarah:

It was like a team thing, and it was amazing. Our parents were great entertainers. I think anytime anyone came over they always had something to put out cheese.

Boo:

Usually.

Sarah:

It was olives and cheese, or they'd always offer a drink when someone came in and put food out automatically. And so we grew up kind of around that and watching what their form of love and hospitality looked like. And then for dinner we always had, Sunday dinner was kind of like you had to be home. So if you were friends' houses or anything else. Sunday was a mandatory family dinner night at our house, and we all cooked together. Everyone had a station I think since we were kids and could reach the counter. Someone was on salads, someone was on a different one and we'd rotate and kind of all take turns and we cooked together and then we ate together.

But I think what was so interesting is during the week our mom had her rotation as most, she was a stay-at-home mom who had her 15 recipes and those were her home runs and those were her Monday through Friday rotation. And then our dad, this is back when Gourmet Magazine existed, would pull recipes from a giant beautiful cookbook collection. But they loved, I remember ripping pages out of Gourmet Magazine and we'd collect them on the counter and then we'd all pick which ones and the weekends when our dad was off of work, we'd cook from magazines and recipes all experimental.

Boo:

And then we voted the end if it was a keeper. It was just like we all thought that was normal. We did that a lot. It was awesome.

Sarah:

And also, our parents, I feel so lucky they took us out and let us experience a lot of different cuisines and very nice restaurants. They let us explore and experience food with them. Not that we weren't left at home with the sitter on some nights, but we got to eat a lot of really special food and really see the magic of what a restaurant could be.

Boo:

And I think they always kind of instilled in us, you try everything. You're allowed not to something and not have it, but anything that we have, you have an obligation to at least try it and then you can have an opinion on whether or not you like it. And so we grew up, I think very curious and open to exploring all types of food always.

Sarah:

And in general, if we didn't like something, my thought to this day is I just haven't had it the right way yet.

Boo:

There must be something I'm missing on how to do it. There isn't much that I don't like, but we were about 12, our parents moved up into Northern California, had a little bit more property and our dad is a vintner. He makes wine and grows grapes. And my mom has an incredible garden, and they make their own olive oil. They're just the coolest people ever. And I think they're, the reasons we're as curious as we are because if we didn't know the answer to something or we're curious about something, they were like, let's look it up. You don't want to know what that dish is. Let's go make it.

Laurie:

I love it. It sounds so sweet and fun and warm. Okay, I have just two more questions for you before we wrap it up. So for anyone who's listening, is there anything that you wish people would know or could know about cheese that you just want to get that message out there?

Boo:

Yes. Don't be afraid to go to a cheese shop. I think it can be very intimidating for people. I think a lot of people don't even know what they like in cheese. The store is so limited, the main grocery store I think to what you can actually...

Sarah:

Like you mentioned earlier on that the American cheese scene right now is really cool. Well, an artisan cheese, I think something that people should understand, just like with vintage to vintage on wine, wheel to wheel sometimes can be completely different experiences when you're dealing with an artisan product. Obviously big, larger makers, the bigger you get, people are trying to make a consistent product, but that a lot of people don't realize how seasonal cheese is. So when the cows and the goats are on grass from spring into summer, in the middle of summer when I know the goats are on grass, I'm eating all the fresh chef I can find because you can taste it in the cheese.

And there's certain cheeses that I like to eat in the winter that are things that were made with summer milk and then aged and released in the winter because during the winter they're not eating grass, they're eating dried grass and grass or the grass changes altitudes. So you're having either it's meadow grass versus alpine. So you have an animal that's being moved up and down a mountain and the milk is totally different based on the diet of the animal throughout the year. And that means the cheese is different.

Boo:

So what I want everyone to know is when you do go into a cheese shop, number one, ask that cheese monger what they're excited about because that's going to be the secret. You're going to get three cheeses that they're pumped on that day and they're probably the best thing that you're ever going to taste.

And it probably wasn't what you were coming in to buy, but it's going to surprise you. And then also ask about what's in season and then you can really start to understand and wrap your arms around what seasonality in artisan cheese looks like. Because that's something that growing up in California where it's 70 degrees year-round, we sometimes lose track of what a season is because you can have a strawberry year-round, which is not normal. So it's really nice to sometimes get in touch with what seasonality in your community and your food looks like.

Laurie:

Right. And then my final question, so our podcast is called Being Home With Hunker. And I know we talked a little bit about your home growing up, but talking about you now as adults, let's start with you Sarah. What does being home mean to you?

Sarah:

Being with the people I love. I always feel home when I'm with my loved ones. Doesn't matter where I am. Home for me is definitely my family. It's not a physical place for me.

Laurie:

Yeah. What about you Boo?

Boo:

Yeah, I think that's the answer. I think usually home is like family time and usually mealtime together feels the most home to me.

Laurie:

Yeah. There really is something about sharing food with friends and family.

Sarah:

If you close your eyes right now listening to this and you think about the last most amazing meal you had, I dare you to take the thought one step further and was it actually the food or was it the company? And so many times when I go back to repeat something that I loved and thought was delicious and maybe it doesn't meet the expectation and it's not the restaurant's fault, the company just isn't there. And so much of what we love about food and cheese boards and bringing people together home, those connections around a dinner table or meals with your loved ones, that's where the good stuff is. That's...

Boo:

We're sharing a cheese board.

Sarah:

Yeah. That's why we love cheese boards because you're sharing something ultimately. It's like an act of love right there.

Laurie:

Amazing. Thank you so much for talking with me today. I so appreciate it.

Sarah:

We're so honored. Thank you so much for reaching out. It was very nice to meet you.

Laurie:

Nice meeting you too. I will see you at your store someday.

Boo:

Thank you.

Sarah:

Okay. Happy holidays.

Laurie:

Thanks, you too. To learn more about Lady & Larder, visit their website, ladyandlarder.com. If you're in the Los Angeles area, visit their store in person in Santa Monica. But if not, check out their virtual cheese and charcuterie board building class and their products online. You can also find out more on Instagram at Lady & Larder. Also in our show notes, we have other episodes we think you might like, such as my chat with rum maker Alexandra Dorda.

Thank you for listening to Being Home With Hunger. For more information about this episode or others, visit hunker.com/podcast. And if you don't already, please follow our show. If you like what you hear, be sure to give us a five-star rating and review and share it with your friends. It really does help. Being Home With Hunker is produced by me. Laurie Gunning Grossman. Eve Epstein is our executive producer. The podcast is recorded and mixed at Night Shift Audio, theme music by Jonathan Grossman. Special thanks to our team at Hunker, Senior Designer, Mory Men and Director of Audience Development, Gina Goff.

Hunker's mission is to inspire and empower you to create a space that expresses who you are, shows off your unique style and makes your life happier and more productive.

Oh, oh Ash, I'm talking to myself. Where was that mmm from that wasn't me. There was a voice over that said, mmm.

‌Being Home With Hunker‌ ‌is a new podcast where we explore the idea of "home" – not just as a place where you live, but as an expression of your identity. Each week we talk with designers, creatives, and artists about who they are, how they create meaningful spaces, and what "being home" means to them.‌

‌If you like what you hear, please rate and review the podcast, hit subscribe/follow, and share with a friend. When it comes to podcasts word of mouth is how most people will find the show. It really does help. Visit‌ ‌Hunker.com/podcast‌ ‌where you can find, follow, and listen to our show.‌