Friday, February 5, 2010

A cheese room: the new 'must-have' restaurant accessory?


As I was lunching at the River Café this week (see here for my review) I took the opportunity to take a look at their glossy new cheese room that they installed after their refit a couple of years ago following the fire that destroyed their kitchen.

In fact it wasn't as large or as lavish as I'd imagined - just a narrow room at the far end of the private dining room (above) but it enables them to keep their cheeses at the ideal temperature and humidity (between 10-12°C and 80-85% respectively)


Needless to say the cheeses themselves were perfect specimens like this Provolone del Monaco (above) and Puzzone di Moena (below) from Trentino Alto Adige, both unpasteurised cows milk cheeses.


I've only seen one other cheese room in London at the South African steak restaurant High Timber but they look so cool I'm sure other restaurants are going to want to follow suit.

Have you come across a restaurant with a good cheese room?

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8 comments:

scandilicious said...

Gosh I'd love to have my OWN cheese room at home ;-) This one at the River Cafe sounds fantastic, wonder if it will take off across restaurants as a whole when the cost of rent is so high...

Fiona Beckett said...

That's true - but they've got to keep the cheese somewhere, and why not somewhere beautiful. Cheese shrine, more like ;-)

Unknown said...

There are amazing cheese rooms at Vivat Bacchus Farringdon and London Bridge. You can go in with a glass of wine and try their cheese to make your own cheese board.

Fiona Beckett said...

Ah - thanks Dorothea. That figures as they're part of the same group as High Timber. I love the idea. Wish more restaurants would do it.

Kavey said...

Pete and I spent a few weeks in Bordeaux some years ago, attending a language school and a restaurant we ended up visiting a number of times was a cheese and wine specialist. The front of the store was actually a wine merchants, so one chose one's bottle for dinner from the shop. And the menu was all cheese based. In the basement they had a cheese cave, the walls of which I think were stone, except for one which was a full wall of glass with glass door, to keep the room properly sealed and correctly cooled. The cheese choice was fabulous in there...

Fiona Beckett said...

Sounds wonderful, Kavey. Can you remember the name?

Unknown said...

I must to say the cheese drives me crazy, I approach every time for eat cheese and I add in my recipes all the time. I read some days ago the cheese have many properties and vitamin. The most important thing is the potassium and calcium the cheese contain. I am sure that When i buying my house through costa rica homes for sale i will prepare a dinner for all my friends and I will add many cheese. That will be wonderful.

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