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Our roster of instructors is filled with passionate and knowledgable experts in cheese, wine, charcuterie, and specialty foods. They work as cheesemongers, cheesemakers, cheese shop owners, and so much more.
Waldemar Albrecht studied law and business administration in his native Venezuela. After immigrating to the US to follow his passion for gastronomy and culinaria, he received training in cheese from industry leaders like Debra Dickerson, Janet Tarlov, Daphne Zepos, and Juliana Uruburu. Managing the cheese counter at the acclaimed Pasta Shop from 1998 through 2002. In May 2003, Waldemar moved to New York City to become a full time Maitre Fromager at Artisanal restaurant, as well as member of the faculty at Artisanal Premium Cheese, nurturing his education through his mentor and friend Max McCalman. Currently, Waldemar works as a spokesperson for Lactalis-USA, conducts food tours with friend and partner Clarisa Penzini, and is the cheese buyer for the Battery Place Markets in Manhattan. 
Vanessa Chang considers herself an all around food nerd. Before preaching pork for her day job as Marketing & Education Manager for Creminelli Fine Meats, she worked as an education director and consultant for specialty food retailers and producers. Her food and travel writing has been featured in the New York Times, Sunset, VIA, and other publications. In addition to charcuterie and cheese (she earned Certified Cheese Professional status from the American Cheese Society), her other great food love is another fermented beauty: chocolate.
Judy Creighton is a cheese educator and former owner of a cheese and wine shop in San Francisco for over 25 years, as well as a consultant for retailers, distributors and importers. She serves as a board member for the California Artisan Cheese Guild and has had the honor of judging for American Cheese Society competitions. Recently, Judy was also a judge for the California State Fair cheese competition. She is a guest lecturer at City College of San Francisco Hotel & Restaurant Program and presents cheese and wine seminars for wineries and non-profit events. In addition to consulting for the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance, she also holds the position of cheese buyer at Lavender Ridge Cheese Market in Murphys, CA. 
Sasha Davies is a cheesemonger in Portland, Oregon, and serves on the board of the American Cheese Society. Davies started her cheese career in New York City as an apprentice affineur in the cheese caves of Artisanal Premium Cheese, going on to manage the caves at the venerable Murray's Cheese and work as a resident cheese expert for Marlow & Sons. Her interest in cheese led her to embark on a four-month tour of forty American artisan cheesemakers, a project documented at cheesebyhand.com. Davies has taught classes at the French Culinary Institute and The Cheese School of San Francisco. Her food writing has appeared on thestrongbuzz.com, in the Diner Journal, and in the cheese-focused magazine Culture 
Lynne Devereux brings a background rich in culinary expertise and food education, developing engaging educational programs for both professional and consumer audiences. She is a specialist in California artisan cheeses and enthusiastic supporter of the American artisan cheese industry. In 2007, Lynne founded the California Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma, and enormously successful festival held every March in Petaluma, CA. She was the founding president of the California Artisan Cheese Guild. Her company, Butter Communications, represents artisan cheese producers and specialty food makers in marketing and PR programs. 
Peter Dixon is a dairy foods consultant and cheesemaker from Westminster, Vermont. Peter has a great deal of experience establishing small-scale cheesemaking facilities and developing recipes and techniques. Peter has been around farms all his life. In the 1980s he made soft-ripened type cheeses in his family’s Guilford Cheese Company after training with traditional French cheesemakers. He has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Animal and Food Sciences from the University of Vermont where he did his thesis on “The Effect of Seasonal Milk Production on Farmstead Cheddar Cheese Composition and Quality.” He has worked for several years as a cheesemaker at Shelburne Farms and Vermont Butter and Cheese Company. Since 1997, he has worked in agricultural development projects in Macedonia, Albania, and Armenia and has travelled in the US and Canada to teach workshops and consult for artisan cheesemakers. Currently, he acts as a consultant to Consider Bardwell Farm and other clients. 
Rachel Dutton is a Bauer fellow at the Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After receiving her PhD in Microbiology from Harvard, she started her own lab focused on cheese microbiology. Her lab studies the microbial communities that make up the rind of cheese, with the goal of understanding the biodiversity of cheese communities, the interactions between cheese microbes, and on developing experimental model ecosystems. Research from the Dutton lab has been featured in Culture Magazine and the Boston Globe. 
Gordon Edgar loves cheese and worker-owned co-ops, and has been combining both of these infatuations as a cheesemonger at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative in San Francisco since 1994. Edgar has been a judge at national cheese competitions, a board member for the California Artisan Cheese Guild, and has had a blog since 2002, which can be found at www.gordonzola.net. His critically acclaimed cheese memoir, Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge, was published in early 2010 by Chelsea Green. 
Dr. Larry and Linda Faillace, are passionate cheeseophiles and food enthusiasts from Three Shepherds Farm, located in the heart of Vermont's beautiful Green Mountains. Over the past seventeen years, they have taught the art and science of cheesemaking to more than 2,000 students from around the world including American Cheese Society award winners. Linda and Larry’s cheesemaking adventures have taken them around the United States, and they were the first to teach traditional artisan cheesemaking techniques in Bermuda and Belize. 
Nicole Erny, Master Cicerone© and Certified Cicerone® West Region Exam Manager What started as a fun time amateur beer-judging on the weekends led Nicole down the debaucherous path of working in the beer industry full time. Nicole is on the content team of the Cicerone Certification Program, and conducts beer pairing and consumer education events. She spent three years behind the bar at The Trappist in Oakland, CA, is a National-level BJCP judge and loves connecting people with great beer. She frequently appears as a guest on the Brewing Network radio shows.
Jon Fancey has studied and traveled extensively to gain a deep understanding of cheese and its cultural significance around the world, exploring cheese production domestically and abroad in such locales as Vermont, Wisconsin, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and beyond. Jon has explored many roles in his food career, growing from line cook and baker to cheesemonger and now, Cheese Buyer for the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses. Jon joined the Bi-Rite team in 2014, after spending five years at the well-renowned San Francisco-based Cheese Plus, during which time he served as Cheese Buyer for three years. Jon also serves as an instructor at the Cheese School of San Francisco and is a member of both the American Cheese Society and California Artisan Cheese Guild, where he is able to deepen his knowledge of cheese production around the world and share this knowledge with fellow cheese lovers.
Kiri Fisher found her heart in artisan cheese. She has worked for The Pasta Shop, Raymond & Co Cheesemongers, Tumalo Farms, the California Milk Advisory Board, and has interned with Monteillet Fromagerie. Previously, she's managed educational programming for California's Artisan Cheese Festival and was a board member of the California Artisan Cheese Guild. She owned and operated The Cheese School from 2011 until 2020. 
Janet Fletcher writes the Planet Cheese blog and is the author of three books on cheese (Cheese & Wine, Cheese & Beer and The Cheese Course). She is also the longtime cheese columnist for Specialty Food magazine. Janet is the recipient of three James Beard Awards and the IACP Bert Greene Award for her journalism. Her writing has appeared in numerous national magazines,including Saveur, Bon Appétit and Food & Wine. Her most recent book is Yogurt: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. www.janetfletcher.com
Chris George grew up in the North East of England and didn't discover the joys of real cheese until his mid twenties whilst working part-time at Neal's Yard Dairy to help fund his post graduate studies. His academic career very quickly took second place to the delicious array of cheeses he was selling and eating. Chris has worked full-time for Neal's Yard since the Summer of 1996. His roles have included retail, cheese maturation, wholesale, export and, more recently, establishing the tastings program for Neal's Yard Dairy, running public tastings and providing training within the food industry. Chris has also worked in TV and radio, ran classes at major food festivals and shows throughout the UK and judged at the British Cheese Awards, World Cheese Awards and at The Great Yorkshire Show. 
Colette Hatch, a core instructor at The Cheese School, is an internationally known authority on food and wine whose career spans more than three decades and covers all aspects of food and wine marketing and management. After earning a degree in Hospitality Management from the Lycee d'Etat Poligny in Jura, France, Colette managed several fine hotels in France, England and Corsica and later completed a presitigious apprenticeship at the Michelin three-star restaurant Jeunet. Upon moving to the US, Colette combined her front-of-house management experience with her food and wine expertise as sommelier and service consultant at Restaurant du Village, a four-star restaurant in Chester, CT. She also founded and managed the catering operation at Au Musee restaurant, part of the Wadsworth Athaneum in Hartford. Since moving to the emerging culinary mecca of Sonoma County, Colette has established a consulting practice serving specialty food retailers, wineries and restaurants throughout the Bay Area. She passed away in January 2023.
John Herbstritt began his culinary education as a student abroad in Paris hosting weekly wine and cheese parties. When he returned he couldn’t leave his newfound passion behind. Starting professionally first at Vintage Berkeley in the East Bay and then graduating to wine buyer at Cheese Plus in the city, he is now the face of the wine department at Bi-Rite’s Divisadero location as the resident wine specialist. There you can find him living in the wine aisle but returning wistfully to the cheese counter to help guests create delicious impromptu pairings. 
Louella Hill's passion for cheesemaking started on a sheep farm in Tuscany where she spent each day milking sheep, haying fields and making Pecorino. Since then, she has apprenticed with small-scale cheesemakers in Europe, Mexico and throughout New England. She is the co-founder of Rhode Island's Narragansett Creamery and know locally as The San Francisco Milk Maid. Her favorite part of cheesemaking is the soft, sweet smell of a milk vat. Like baby's breath.
Kirstin Jackson is the author of "It's Not You, It's Brie: A Guide to Unwrapping American Cheese Culture," and has written about cheese and wine for publications like the LA Times, NPR, and Kinfolk. When not writing, she manages a wine bar, teaches, consults, travels, and writes about cheese for her blog, itsnotyouitsbrie.com. She blames her parents, who took her on monthly trips to California creameries as a child, for inspiring her obsession with cheese.
Steve Jones is the founder and owner of Cheese Bar, a retail cheese counter and casual restaurant that offers a rotating menu built with artisan and farmstead products. His cheese adventures include directing the cheese department for Provvista Specialty Foods Inc., one of the nation’s most admired wholesale purveyors of fine cheeses and specialty products and interning in affinage and marketing with Neal’s Yard Dairy in London. He is a founding member of The Wedge, the biannual Portland cheese festival, and in 2009 was half of the winning team in the American Cheese Society's (ACS) first annual Cheese Mongering competition. Steve has served as a judge for the ACS annual competitions and as a panelist and presenter for ACS and other organizations on numerous occasions. In 2011, Steve competed with 40 cheesemongers from around the world to win the 2nd Annual Cheesemonger Invitational in Long Island, New York. As a repeat instructor with the Food by Hand’s The Craft and Business of Retailing Artisan Cheese seminar, Steve has shared his enthusiasm for cheese and retail expertise with aspiring cheese mongers. Cheese Bar allows Steve to share his love of beer and his pursuit of interesting cheese and beer/wine pairings.
As a Bay Area native, Eli has always had a deep and abiding love for good food. Her career in cheese was purely accidental though, kickstarted by the need for an off-campus job while studying vocal jazz and anthropology in New York. From there, a Titanic-sized love affair was born. She spent three years as a cheesemonger at Bedford Cheese Shop and BKLYN Larder before deciding she needed a change of scenery and quite fortuitously, she found The Cheese School. When she's not knee deep in cheese, you can find her stealing socks back from her dog and singing very loudly in the car. But also, eating more cheese.
Michael Kalish began his food career in commercial beekeeping and wine crush work. He was the first American to receive formal training in dairy and meat processing in the Piedmont, Italy, at l'istituto lattiero caseario e delle tecnologie agroalimentari. He has since worked for, and trained under, some of Europe's finest artisan cheese makers and affineurs (professional cheese agers), including Mons, Fromager et Affineur (FR) and Luigi Guffanti (IT). Michael has worked on over a dozen of the best creameries in France, Switzerland and Italy. In the USA, Michael managed operations for Artisanal Premium Cheese in NYC and spends his time teaching affinage workshops, traveling with twin brother Charlie as a television personality and as a fellow Brand Ambassador for Meiomi Wines, and providing consulting across the United State, Canada and Australia. Michael is also casted on Food Network shows, such as Great Food Truck Race, series 7. 
Mary Karlin is a passionate cook, cooking teacher, freelance food writer, and cookbook author. She was a founding staff member and is currently a visiting chef- instructor at the award-winning Ramekins Culinary School in Sonoma, CA, where she has taught wood-fired cooking, cheesemaking, and Mediterranean-themed cooking classes for over ten years. Mary is also a chef-instructor at Relish Culinary Center in Healdsburg, CA, and Great News! Cooking School in San Diego, CA, as well as a guest instructor at other prominent culinary venues around the United States. Marys acclaimed first book, Wood-Fired Cooking, was published by Ten Speed Press in spring 2009. Her much anticipated second book, Artisan Cheese Making at Home, will be released August 23, 2011. Mary is available for special events, teaching dates, interviews, and book signings. Visit www.elementsoftaste.com, and www.artisancheesemakingathome.com for a schedule of her classes and events. 
Marshka Kiera is a Polish-born, Australian-raised, San Francisco-dwelling nomad. The earliest signs of cheese-making have recently been discovered in clay pots in Poland so perhaps the love of the curd runs in her veins. She's been a Good Food Awards judge for both cheese and charcuterie and is a senior cheesemonger at San Francisco’s Mission Cheese, slinging America’s finest curds. Each year she also runs the annual Butcher’s Guild Conference - the national gathering of artisanal butchers. In 2013 Marshka founded Curds and Cuts, as another avenue to spread the ‘good cheese & meat’ message throughout the Bay Area.
Cheesemonger and Oakland native Emiliano Lee is the Specialty Buyer, Forager, and Educator for Farmshop (Marin & Santa Monica). He has built a unique domestic cheese & specialty food program at Farmshop's Artisan Market, further showcasing those products in their restaurant's cheese programs. He has judged cheese for the American Cheese Society annually since 2009,has judged the SOFI Awards & Good Food Awards, has been a panelist and moderator at ACS and the Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference, and is a member of Culture Magazine’s Editorial Advisory Panel.
Manuel Maia is the man responsible for sharing Portugese cheeses and foods with the world. He created Tradifoods in 1998 with traditional dry goods. Soon he had a stable of 11 cheeses. Today they distribute and export 30 different Portuguese cheeses, 10 Spanish cheeses, as well as wines and delicious condiments.
Eric Miller is director of the in-house charcuterie program, cheesemonger, and manager at Mission Cheese. After escaping his former cubicle life, he is now creating traditional charcuterie items with an American flair, along with pickles, and dessert items. A native New Yorker, Eric has spent numerous hours helping educate the masses about the art of meats and cheeses at the legendary Murray’s Cheese. Now an enthusiastic transplant to the west coast, he is excited about bringing his New York know-how to San Francisco’s fresh food scene. 
Karletta Moniz is a San Francisco-based food journalist, consultant and chef. Recent projects include new product development work for the Center for Culinary Development San Francisco. Her fascination with all things cacao led her to create the Art of Tasting Chocolate class featured on Daily Candy. As a returning guest on ABC-TVs View from the Bay, she has demonstrated not only how to taste chocolate but also has shared chocolate-related recipes on-screen. Her clients include CocoAroma Magazine, Leites Culinaria, The Tablehopper, and more. She can be heard on her podcast site, www.KarlettaMoniz.com, where she shares her irreverent and unique perspective of the culinary scene, especially related to chocolate. She also acts as a judge for culinary literary competitions for the James Beard Awards and for Scholarship Awards for The Symposium for Professional Food Writers at The Greenbrier. 
Lenny Rice Moonsammy grew up in Hugo, Oklahoma, a teeny town near the Texas border. Inspired by her mom Dixie's mouthwatering pot roast and chicken fried steak, Lenny dabbled in cooking at an early age. Though she pursued a degree in business at University of Oklahoma, Lenny was always happiest when hosting dinner parties and cooking for friends. She left Oklahoma for Vermont to attend New England Culinary Institute, where she was introduced to a career in the food business and her future husband, NECI classmate Chris Moonsammy. Her desire to work with the best food, wine and chefs in the country drove Lenny to the Napa Valley, where she worked for Robert Mondavi Winery and Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts before landing a job at the Cowgirl Creamery and now Bellwether Farms in Sonoma County. Lenny's extreme cheese knowledge led her to persuade foodie friend Brigid Callinan to co-author a fondue cookbook with her. Lenny lives in Petaluma with her husband and their furry friends, Bennett the Corgi, Piper the Aussie Shepherd and Sammy the cat. 
Chris Munsey is an all-round fermentation aficionado whose main two passions, beer and cheese have compelled him to travel the globe in search of the best examples of both. When he is not globetrotting, Chris is working hard to educate Californians on the pleasures of Vermont Creamery products as their West Coast Sales Director. A Certified Cicerone (fancy title for beer geek) and veteran of six years at Murray's Cheese Shop in New York City, Chris is always excited to turn people on to the wonders of beer and cheese from both a historical/economical and gastronomic standpoint. Wine and cured meats are okay in his book too.
After completing her Masters in Culinary Arts Administration from the University of Oregon, Liz Cutler Rubin has become a "Jane of Artisanal Trades." Over the past 9 years she has specialized in the trades of butchery, cheese, and wine. She has worked at the James Beard Foundation, Avedano's meats, Mission Cheese, and Birite Market. Liz is also the assistant manager for the Oregon Truffle Festival, a seasonal post she has held for seven years. Her current full-time position is the Head of Cheese and Alcohol at Birite Market on Divisadero.
Anne Saxelby was the founder of Saxelby Cheesemongers, a cheese shop in Manhattan selling only American artisan cheeses. Saxelby Cheesemongers opened their flagship store in the Essex Street Market in 2006, then built a cheese cave in Brooklyn to store and age cheeses and run the wholesale side of the business. Anne got her start in the cheese world working at Murray's Cheese in Greenwich Village, and fell in love with American farmstead cheese after interning as a cheese maker at Cato Corner Farm. Before opening Saxelby Cheesemongers, Anne spent a year traveling abroad to learn cheese making with producers in the Loire Valley and affinage from master affineur Hervé Mons. In addition to the retail shop, Anne recorded a weekly internet radio show called Cutting the Curd on the Heritage Radio Nework (heritageradionetwork.com), where she promoted artisan cheese making and created a useful audio archive for cheese makers and cheese lovers. She passed away in October of 2021.
Lassa Skinner fell into cheese in the early '80s and almost didn't complete college because of it. She worked at a start-up gourmet market in Brookline, MA and, by chance, was put in the cheese shop alongside a woman who had made cheese in the Loire. Raw milk, aged goat cheese! Love at first bite. She later worked at Formaggio Kitchen then moved west, landed in the Napa Valley, and started up a cheese program at Tra Vigne restaurant (St. Helena). She is currently the General Manager of the Oxbow Cheese Merchant in downtown Napa, co-founder of culture: the word on cheese and co-author of Cheese For Dummies (May 2012).
Jarred Sorci is a Bay Area native approaching ten years as a beer industry professional. His career began in retail, running beer departments at Whole Foods Market locations in Los Altos, San Francisco, and San Jose, before relocating and jumping to the production side of the industry with Ruhstaller, a small brewery and hop farm in Sacramento. Over two years, he oversaw the Research and Development brewing program, farmed and helped manage their 7.5 acre hop yard, and regularly taught “Hop School” classes on weekends during the growing season. His love of history and beer lured him back to the Bay Area, and to Anchor Brewing Company, putting his skills to use guiding tours, private tastings, and later as a packaging specialist. He continues his quest for knowledge and experience of all things beer currently at Admiral Malting in Alameda, where he helps bridge the gap between the farm and brew house, malting grain for brewers and distillers across the country.
Naomi Smith grew up in the Willamette Valley and naturally learned to love food and wine. Working at South Park, an influential restaurant in Portland is where Naomi discovered that she was most interested in the wine program and she moved to Seattle to work for Noble Wines, an indie distributor that supplies wine to such Pacific Northwest institutions as Tom Douglas restaurants, the Space Needle, The Four Seasons, The Fairmont, and DeLaurentis. It was during this time that Naomi's love for cheese sparked the collaboration with DeLaurenti to create the Seattle Cheese Festival, an event that brings in more than 100,000 people to Pike Place Market every year. With the success of the Cheese Festival, Naomi brought that experience to building the Artisan Food Festival, an event that focuses on Pacific Northwest producers. Eventually, Naomi left Seattle for San Francisco and now is the Northwest Regional Manager for the prestigious winery, Champagne Laurent-Perrier. 
Anthea Stolz started working with cheese at Zingermans Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, MI, after graduating from college. What she thought was going to be a summer job turned into three years of eye-opening learning and tasting before moving to San Francisco. She began her West Coast cheese education behind the cheeses counter at The Pasta Shop in Oakland, CA. She most recently was the cheese buyer at Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco and teaches cheese classes at 18 Reasons. 
Juliana Uruburu directs the cheese selection, merchandising, education, and promotions for the Bay Area's renowned Pasta Shop. Working with cheese for over 20 years, she is a frequent panelist and cheese judge at industry conferences including the American Cheese Society and is the head cheese judge for the California State Expo. Recognized as an individual dedicated to promoting quality cheese and consumption, Juliana was recently inducted into the Guilde des Fromagers, dedicating her lifes work to promoting the consumption of cheese.
Jocelyn VanLandingham (Chef) grew up eating fresh out of her grandparents orchard and hails from a family of chefs. Naturally she went on to study at the Culinary Institute of America. In her first kitchen job she snagged a position working under chef Cat Cora. During this time she made more fresh mozzarella than Italy. She went on to work at Rechiutti Chocolates, RN74, Waiheke Island Yacht Club and Gastronaut. When she's not at The Cheese School, you can find her at the farmers market or enjoying a glass of bubbles.
Laura Werlin is one of the country’s foremost authorities on cheese. She is the award-winning author of six books on the subject, is a sought-after speaker and spokesperson for consumer and trade organizations, and is a frequent television and radio guest. She received the prestigious James Beard award for her book The All American Cheese and Wine Book and a James Beard nomination for her book,Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials. Laura is a recent inductee into the prestigious Guilde des Fromagers and serves as the president of the American Cheese Education Foundation, an arm of the American Cheese Society of which she has been a member for sixteen years.
Carlos Yescas founded Lactography, República Gastronómica, and Instituto Mexicano del Queso, A.C. He is a judge, book author, and cheese expert. Carlos is also the Program Director of the Oldways Cheese Coalition, where he advocates for artisanal cheeses and the protection of traditional cheesemaking practices around the world. Carlos coordinates campaigns to highlight the benefits of raw milk cheese and leads efforts to engage legislators and regulators in the U.S. for the protection of artisan cheeses. 
Benjamin Wolfe is a food scientist at Harvard University, specializing in the microbiology of fermented foods. He earned his PhD from Harvard studying the evolutionary origins of deadly mushrooms, but has recently shifted to studying more edible fungi: the molds and yeasts that make delicious cheese. He is currently working with Rachel Dutton at Harvard's FAS Center for Systems Biology on the first comprehensive study of the microbial biodiversity of American artisanal cheeses. He has worked closely with Jasper Hill Farms in Vermont and the Momofuku Test Kitchen in NYC to discover and characterize native yeasts and molds in food fermentations. 
Daphne Zepos was among the most outspoken and dynamic cheese advocates in the United States. She was a former board member for the American Cheese Society, and was Chairperson of the ACS Annual Cheese Competition from 1999 to 2002. Daphne was a co-founder of the Cheese of Choice Coalition, an advocacy group dedicated to the preservation of raw milk and small production cheeses. From 2002 to 2005 Daphne Zepos played a lead role at the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center. She selected and matured more than 300 cheeses in Artisanal's affinage cheese caves, assembled many cheese collections, established Artisanal's Affinage Internship program, and, with Max McCalman, created and taught Artisanal's Cheese Master Class Program. In 2006, Daphne founded the Essex Street Cheese Company, which imports hand-selected cheeses from Europe. Daphne was co-owner of The Cheese School until she passed away in July of 2012. She continues to be an inspiration to the school and her community.