How many boards do you actually need?

A board is a shared thing. The question it answers is not “how much food” but “how many people are going to reach for the same cheese at the same time”. The larger the group, the more a shared board has to be divided up before anyone can get to the good end of it.

Serves 2 to 3

This is the one to buy for a dinner party where the board is the main event rather than a starter. It feeds two comfortably and three without anyone having to wait. It is also the size to order when you are not sure how much a group will actually eat, because a smaller board that gets finished beats a larger board that ends up in the fridge for a week.

Serves 4 to 6

Six people is where sharing stops being graceful. At this size the board works best as the thing people keep coming back to through an evening rather than the thing that feeds them all at once. Order this for a family meal or a relaxed group where conversation is the point.

Serves 10 to 14

This is an event size. Fourteen people pulling at one board means someone is reaching across someone else, which is fine at a party and wrong at a dinner. If you are hosting this many, consider two medium boards instead of one large one. Two boards on two tables get eaten faster than one board on a crowded one.

The rule we go by

Count the people who will genuinely eat, not the people who are in the room. A board for twelve is a generous lunch. A board for six is a dinner. A board for four is an appetiser, and if that is what you want, order the small one and put something else on the table.