Charcuterie craze hits the Central Valley

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It's art that's edible. Charcuterie boards are growing in popularity, including in the Central Valley.

"Before you would probably only find it in fine dining, but with the influencers and Instagram, it's really become popular and becoming such a great trend. It's really just meat and cheese on a platter with delicious fruits and things that pairs well with it," said Auzzie Lewis with The Grazing Table Events.

Lewis and her friend own The Grazing Table Events, a business focused on charcuterie, grazing tables and small bites. They started their business right as the pandemic hit.

"Just really a passion. We love food. We love flavor. We love beautiful food. I want to be mesmerized by what I eat, so that sort of pushed it. Something we used to do for friends and family, and here we are today," Lewis said.

People have hired them for baby showers to birthday parties.

The owners of Fig and Honey LLC started two and a half years ago when they couldn't find a local business that specialized in charcuterie.

"It was an immediate demand. We started posting pictures on her Instagram, and everybody was like, 'oh I want that.' So it's definitely picked up momentum," said Allison Cassavon.

The pandemic has changed their business too.

"We used to do a lot more larger boards. We do smaller boxes now for smaller parties. We also do individual and personal boxes a lot. They do Zoom meetings with those, or people buy those for weddings to give their version of the charcuterie table," Cassavon said.

Prices vary per board or box.

You can also try to create your own charcuterie board.

Experts suggest buying a variety of cheeses and meats and using fresh fruits and vegetables.

They say to start with big items and use your imagination to build a plate all your own.

A trend that's tasty and creative.