High Cheese Menu at The Westin

The Westin hotel’s Allegro Restaurant debuted the High Cheese concept in 2018, originally in partnership with Maker & Monger. As the name suggests, it’s regular high tea, but almost every dish features a different cheese.

It's back again this year, this time with help from Melbourne’s beloved cheesemonger duo, the Studd siblings. Ellie and Sam Studd, who published their debut book The Best Things in Life are Cheese last year, have collaborated with the hotel’s executive chef Apoorva Kunte on a three-tiered menu.

The first tier features cloth-aged cheddar and candied apple scones, plus whipped butter and smyrna quince nectar.

The second tier is all about savoury goods and includes a tomato tart with purple congo potato and the Greek sheep and goat’s milk cheese galotyri; Woombye triple-cream brie with truffle, mushroom and macadamia cervelle de canut (a cheese-based dip); Dreaming Goat chevre with fig and pistachio jam; Welsh rarebit with L’Artisan Mepunga gruyere on olive and rosemary sourdough; and Le Conquérant baked Camembert studded with lemon thyme and garlic.

Finally, there’s the dessert tier, with Basque chocolate cake with native pepperberry; vanilla bean and goat’s curd panna cotta with house-made rhubarb compote; El Esparto cave-ripened manchego bavarois with candied pineapple; and a 55 per cent dark chocolate from Cote d’Ivoire.

High Cheese is available by reservation only, with sittings lasting for two hours. From 5pm Wednesday to Saturday. Each meal includes a glass of Scotchman’s Hill wine.