Will Studd’s book is available on Amazon
Recently, Ricki (The Cheese Queen) sent me the link to a video of cool street art.* Much of it was done in chalk and it reminded me that chalk is often used with cheese. I was thinking about sandwich signs and cheese boards, but, when I looked it up, I found that in the United Kingdom, it has it’s own meaning.
There, it is used to show that things are “as different as chalk and cheese,” and more particularly – things that are superficially alike but very different in substance. According to Wiktionary, this comes from the idea that the surface of some cheeses, particularly un-aged ones, look similar to chalk – white and crumbling – but, in reality, cheese is much softer than chalk.
Book available at Simon & Schuster
Getting back to my original premise, chalk is very often used on signs to sell cheese, cutting boards, labels, etc. because, more than any other food, identification of the many varieties is important.
I wanted to differentiate between actual chalk drawings and the kind that are generated on the computer to look like chalk. So, the ones I found (below) are genuine chalk creations.
Note: In the second half of this 2 part series, I will go over ways you can make your own cheesy chalkboards.
Signs in front of stores
In front of the Puhoi Valley Cheese Company in New Zealand. Photo from Ang Sarap
From Cheshire Brush
In front of Wychwood Deli
Signs inside stores
Photo of Murray’s Cheese Bar from Gastro Chic
Whole Foods store. Photo from A Sense of Place
By James Bennion for a grocery store
Made by Kyle Tweedy for Whole Foods
Cheese boards
Slate is commonly used for serving cheese.
Photo by Kob Wang for Newstar Slate
Slate cutting board from LightsForAllOccasions.com
Sold at Americanlink.com
Chalkboard paint can be used to turn any surface into a chalkboard.
From Lowe’s
From pbceda.org
Cheese labels
Using chalkboard spray paint. From pdceda.org
Sold by Crate & Barrel
Cheese tables
Photo of chalkboard contact paper from tablespoon.com
At a wedding. I suspect it was a board of some kind painted with chalkboard paint. Photo from Oh Lovely Day
From Imgarcade.com
If you see a good example of chalk and cheese, take a picture and send it to us at info@cheesemaking.com. We would love to share it with everyone at our Facebook page.
* Street Art Video – https://www.facebook.com/inspira.viral/videos/1392992394088563/
