A method of shredding a block of material, which can be a block of cheese, includes moving blades about an axis and feeding a block of material in a feed plane toward the moving blades in a feeding direction, where the feeding direction is substantially perpendicular to the axis about which the blades move. A drive unit is provided that moves the blades about the axis, wherein the blades define a cutting perimerer, and a feed unit is provided that moves the block of material toward the cutting perimeter on a feed plane and in the feeding direction. In one embodiment, the blades are on a rotating drum and the feeding direction is generally perpendicular to and rotated about 90.degree. from the axis about which the blades move. The plurality of blades cut shreds of material from a front face of the block.