Eat Fennel For Breakfast

I have had to eat cheese virtually every single day for the past six years- not because I am insatiably hungry, or because cheese is delicious, but because as a maker and a monger of cheese I need to be able to access and evaluate the products I am producing and selling. Some days, it’s simply determining if a particular cheese is ready for the counter. Other days, it’s the American Cheese Society’s Festival of Cheese, and there are thousands of cheeses to try. How do you go from casual snacker, wantonly stabbing cubed cheddar with a toothpick, to seasoned taster, squishing cheese in your fingers and deeply inhaling before each bite, selectively choosing the best and ripest cheeses?

Just some of the Cheeses at the 2014 American Cheese Society's Festival of Cheese

Professional tasting involves a lot of research and training, but if I could recommend one place to begin: eat fennel for breakfast.

If you are going to an all-day cheese festival, or you plan to be tasting a lineup of cheeses, no other bit of preparation will serve you better. If you don’t love fennel you can certainly opt for a kale smoothie or some other high fiber, high nutrient meal, but for me, you really cannot beat the perfection of a fennel salad. Although calorie-dense, cheese on its own will not really make you feel full. Starting with fennel prevents you from feeling too-hungry while tasting. It also stimulates digestion which is very helpful, indeed.

While attending the American Cheese Society Conference in Providence this year, I repeatedly stopped by Figidini for the fennel salad they had on their menu.

Inspired by Figidini, Fennel Salad for a day of cheese tasting:

Slice a fennel bulb on a mandolin (use the finger guard!) or sliced as thinly as possible with a very sharp knife, toss with juice from ¼ lemon and a teaspoon of olive oil. Dressed, this can keep in your fridge for a few days- the fennel will soften as it marinates.

Serve with some sliced citrus, your favorite olives and a few springs of mint.