The Cheese Course Is a $18 Add-On — Only If Your Server Can Describe More Than 'It's Good'
Hey Team!
A cheese course is one of the highest-margin items on any menu that runs one. Think about it. You've got maybe six ounces of product, some honeycomb, a few nuts, two slices of bread, and a forty percent food cost that most operators would kill for on an entree. Done right, it closes a table beautifully. It drives a wine add-on. It keeps guests in seats longer, which matters more than people admit when you're trying to build average check and not just turn covers.
And yet. I watch servers walk up to a table, get asked about the cheese board, and say some version of "it's really good, we have a few different ones." Guest says okay and orders another round of drinks instead. Eighteen dollars just walked out the door.
That's not a menu problem. That's a training problem.
Here's what I've seen in thirty years. Cheese is one of the only things on a menu that servers don't feel they're supposed to know. Wine gets some attention, even if it's shallow. Protein cookery gets drilled because guests ask. But cheese sits there on the back page and nobody ever teaches the team how to talk about it. So they don't. They default to "it's really good" and move on.
The fix is not a laminated cheese glossary in the side station. It's five descriptors, memorized cold, for every cheese on your board.
Start with milk type. This is the easiest entry point and guests almost always find it interesting. Cow, sheep, goat, buffalo. Each one carries a flavor profile your server can lean on. Goat is brighter, tangier, more acidic. Sheep tends toward a nuttier, richer, almost caramel depth. Cow is the most variable, which is why you need the next descriptor to do the work. Milk type gives a guest something to anchor to, especially if they already know they love or hate one of them.
Texture comes next. Soft, semi-soft, firm, hard. This matters more than most servers think because guests are often making a tactile decision as much as a flavor one. A guest who just finished a heavy short rib doesn't necessarily want a dense, crumbly aged wedge. They might want something soft and spreadable. Your server can steer that conversation if they know what each cheese actually feels like on the board.
Funk level is the one that sells most reliably when a server uses it honestly. Every table has at least one guest who's nervous about cheese. They've had bad blue cheese once and they're cautious. If your server can say "this one is pretty mild, almost buttery, no funk at all" versus "this one is pungent, it's a washed rind, it's for people who want a ride," that guest relaxes. They pick based on real information instead of guessing or passing entirely. Honest funk level is the difference between selling three cheeses and selling one.
Origin is quick but it matters. A French cheese from the Auvergne carries a story. An English farmhouse cheddar has context. Even domestic American artisan cheeses from Vermont or California have a line worth saying. Guests who care about food want that anchor. Guests who don't still respond to a confident "this comes from a small producer in Burgundy" because it signals that somebody in your restaurant actually thought about this.
The fifth one is pairing. Not a lecture. One line. "This one is great with the quince jam we put on the board" or "we've been pouring a Sauternes with this and it's stupid good together." A pairing suggestion signals expertise and it creates a second sale. Your server just became a guide, not a menu reader.
Five descriptors per cheese. That's the whole system. And now here's the honest part: a server is not going to memorize those descriptors from a training manual they read once during onboarding and never touched again.
What works is repetition on a device they already use. Short questions, specific to your actual cheese board, fired at them in a five-minute burst before service. What's the milk type on the Manchego? What's the texture of the brie? How would you describe the funk level on the blue to a nervous guest? Which pairing do we recommend with the aged gouda? They answer, they get immediate feedback, they do it again tomorrow.
That's what I built ShiftTrained to do. I've watched it work at my own spots. A server who took the quiz on the way to work is not mumbling through the cheese course. They're selling it. They're proud of knowing it. That quiz didn't take twenty minutes in a conference room. It took four minutes on the train.
The table that orders the cheese board tips differently, too. They linger. They're having an experience, not just a meal. You can't quantify everything, but I've watched enough closes to know that a server who navigates a cheese course with confidence builds a different kind of trust at the table. The kind that makes guests come back and ask for that same server next time.
Cheese training is not a niche concern for fine dining spots. Any restaurant running a board, any wine bar with a small plate program, any gastropub with four or five domestic selections needs their team to know these five things. The margin is there. The guest interest is there. The only missing piece is the twenty minutes of actual training that turns mumbling into selling.
Put it in a quiz. Run it before Friday night service. See what happens to that back-page item by Saturday.
Have a great day! — Terry Psaltakis
Your AI Restaurant Guy
For more on putting this into practice, see how ShiftTrained approaches restaurant staff training.
