12 December 2022
Charcuterie gained popularity in America
in the early 1900s when cocktail parties and
midnight suppers — usually eaten aer a
concert or theater performance — took hold,
Johnson says.
Lindsey Smith was a clinical psychologist
repairing troubled marriages and helping
people struggling with substance abuse
when she lived in California. When
her husband, an Army veteran, took a
contractor job at Fort Bragg, the Smiths
moved to Fayetteville.
Being thousands of miles from home was
unsettling at first, but Smith joined a gym,
met some new friends and started looking
for a second career. She loves to cook but
was also drawn to charcuterie. At the time,
what's now trendy seemingly everywhere
CHARCUTERIE STRATEGY
Lindsey Smith, owner of The Charcuterie Chic, offers these tips for creating an
appetizing charcuterie board:
• The essentials: Three cheeses (hard, semi-firm, soft, aged, crumbly or blue); two
to three meats; two to three crackers or pretzels; two to three fresh fruits.
• The extras: Olives, pickles, nuts, vegetables, dips or spreads, dried fruit.
• Cheese to please: Don't use three types of cheddar. Pick a variety of flavors and
colors.
• Eye appeal: Pick different shapes and textures. Round crackers, square crackers,
pretzel rods. A large block of hard cheese, square or triangle sliced cheese,
cheese spreads. Rolled prosciutto or round salami. Different colored fruits.
• Plating: Serve cheese at room temperature. Start assembly with the cheese,
adding fruit and crackers. Disperse meats evenly, and add extras like nuts and
chocolates to fill in. Check for empty spaces.
For information on her workshops, go to https://shopthecharcuteriechic.com/.
For a recent interview, Lindsey Smith laid out her ingredients in separate piles on brown kitchen paper. She used a marker to label
each cheese and meat and other ingredients.
