Cheese Making Classes: Creamy Camembert & Flying Solo

Cheese making classes Bay Area, here I come.

After ten years, this week is the first week where I have complete control over when I wake up. I don't have to leave my home at a specific time to open the doors of a wine shop in fear of a delivery person absconding with our wine if I'm five late. Don't have to pack my lunch the night before or start prepping dinner before I leave because I won't arrive home from work till 9pm. Don't have to obsess about if I'm adding cultures to milk too early before I leave for work since I can now monitor my cheese making experiments from home all day long. 

I am now flying solo. 

From June on, you can find me either at home obsessing over camembert fluffiness (rather than while at the wine shop- good change?), teaching cheese lovers how to make ricotta or mozzarella at their homes or at public cheese making classes in the Bay Area (lucky, lucky girl), or writing. It's taken me a while to get to this place.

Camembert stacks- cheese making classes

In addition to teaching cheese making classes where I show people the proper way to massage mozzarella curds into cream to create burrata, now I have time to pitch magazines and pursue that England and Ireland writing project I've been researching and dreaming about.

Though leaving a place you've been working at with dear friends for ten years, and doing things that reflect the realities of self-employment like spending two hours on the phone and on the Covered California website makes me feel a little anxious, I'm overall so happy. I'm venturing out on my own (and also, those Covered California people were really nice).

I've learned that sometimes you have to firmly close some doors for others to open. And they're opening. This week I've taught students at 18 Reasons how to make burrata, am prepping for private classes and a writing retreat-lockdown next week, and I met with amazing people for whom I'll be teaching classes in the future. There are a lot of cool people around here, and now I finally have time to work for and with them (you may of course include yourself in this list).

If you'd like to schedule a private event, consider me more open. If you'd like to come to one of my public classes, you can find me all over the bay area. If you come over to my house any time soon, expect it to smell of cheese recipes I'm testing. Camembert pictures are the results of test batches (cheese babes, a couple days old, no mold rind yet) for an upcoming class I'm teaching at The Cheese School. Yes, I added extra cream.

Thank you all for helping to make this happen. I look forward to cheese and writing adventures with you in the future. Thank you family, friends, and readers for your support.

Burrata Comes to You: My New Mobile Cheesemaking Classes

As the sun beams through the moody sky outside after this week's early rains, I sit inside smiling, thinking of the upcoming holidays, and big changes. This week I have something I'm overjoyed to share with you. It involves cheesemaking classes in the Bay Area, me, and, you.

I'm launching a mobile cheesemaking class business.

Just in time for the holidays. Though my list of to-dos for launching are long and big changes often evoke fear, the feeling of calm and happiness washing over me assures me I'm in the right place, doing the right thing. Honestly, I feel pretty blissful.

Starting a cheesemaking class business is something I’ve been thinking about since I got back from the Comté region of Jura years ago, when driving around the British Isles, and while visiting artisan cheesemakers from California to Rhode Island. Simply, the cheese and the cheesemakers got under my skin.

When in England and Ireland making cheese, I fell in love with the way the curd feels on your fingers as you scoop it into wheels. The way mozzarella gently gives when you stretch it, pasta filata style. The way buttermilk transforms milk into fluffy fromage blanc, and the way homemade ricotta transforms even the simplest of dishes.

And I’d be honored to share this with you. 

Stretchy mozzarella. Cream-filled burrata. Soft fromage blanc.

Fluffy ricotta. Crumbly snow-white chevre. 

I will travel to your home or Bay Area business to teach you how to stretch mozzarella, make fresh cheeses like creamy burrata or homemade ricotta. Cheesemaking classes ares fun, delicious, perfect for holidays, team building, or parties with friends or family around your kitchen.

A few example classes

Burrata by Hand: Creamy decadence from start to finish

Fresh Cheeses & the Kitchen: Making and cooking with fromage blanc and ricotta

Cheese Lover Gifts: Making chevre, truffles, and candied walnuts for the holidays

Stretch & Sip: Stretch mozzarella curds, and a fresh cheese and wine pairing

And yes, if you’re more wine than cheesemaking-inclined, I'd happily travel with my cheese and wine pairing classes to your next team building event or gathering too.

Expect to see more blog posts and some lovely changes on this site as I refresh a little and hang out more with others. I'm sorry I haven't been writing as much on the blog- I've been preparing to launch! I hope you find it as exciting as I do. Thank you so much for reading and your support. I feel very blessed as I move forward into this new venture.

If you'd like to reach me for questions or discuss booking, please contact me at kirstin@itsnotyouitsbrie.com.