{"id":57066,"date":"2024-07-30T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T09:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/?p=57066"},"modified":"2025-04-01T19:50:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T03:50:52","slug":"shelf-life-peeks-into-the-nooks-and-crannies-of-the-cheesemakers-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2024\/07\/30\/shelf-life-peeks-into-the-nooks-and-crannies-of-the-cheesemakers-world\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shelf Life\u2019 Peeks Into the Nooks and Crannies of the Cheesemaker\u2019s World"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/div>

\u201cMilk is one of the simplest things in nature,\u201d says Jim Stillwagon, an eccentric cheesemaker standing in his cluttered kitchen somewhere in the Pyrenees. \u201cWhen a child vomits on your shoulder, those are the earliest vestiges of cheese.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

\n

Stillwagon\u2019s strange philosophical musings on curd set the tone for Shelf Life,<\/em> a new documentary about the parallels between cheese aging and human aging. Produced by Robyn Metcalfe<\/a> and directed by Ian Cheney<\/a> (whose films include King Corn<\/a><\/em> and The Search for General Tso<\/a><\/em>), Shelf Life<\/em> premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, where it won the award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature.<\/p>\n

Filmed in more than six countries over three years, Shelf Life<\/em> takes us inside the work spaces of artisan cheesemakers and specialists to observe them at their craft: through the halls of underground cheese vaults<\/a> in Vermont. Under the microscope with a cheese microbiologist in California. Behind the scenes of the World Cheese Awards<\/a> in Wales. Into a children\u2019s classroom in Japan for a cheese-making lesson. And to the cheese-laden dining-room table of an award-winning cheesemonger in Chicago (see \u201cFive Questions for Alisha Norris Jones<\/a>,\u201d below).<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Cheesemaker Jim Stillwagon in his kitchen somewhere in the Pyrenees. (Photo courtesy of Wicked Delicate Films) <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

Wonderfully diverse in scope, we even get to visit an archeologist\u2019s dig site in Egypt to learn about cheese in the afterlife, observe a traditional hand-pulled cheese practice in Tbilisi, Georgia, and descend into the shadowy basement stacks of a cheese librarian<\/a> in Switzerland. Metcalfe calls this remarkable cast of characters \u201cthe poets of the cheese business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelf Life<\/em> captures the vast and complex universe of cheese, acknowledging its place in the food system without getting into its politics\u2014even when there\u2019s a lot to say: The global cheese market is estimated at around $187 billion, according to one report<\/a>, but this monetary worth comes with a sizable carbon footprint. According to a joint study<\/a> by the Environmental Working Group and the firm Clean Metrics, dairy-based cheese is the third-highest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, trailing behind beef and lamb.<\/p>\n

Some have advocated for vegan cheese<\/a> as a potential solution to environmental troubles<\/a>. But dairy-based cheeses play an important role in local economies and culinary traditions worldwide, enriching people\u2019s stories and ways of life\u2014something Shelf Life<\/em> celebrates.<\/p>\n

Although film is a relatively new medium for Metcalfe, her connection to the food industry goes back to her grandfather, Roy Diem, who worked with entrepreneur Bob Wian to build the first Bob\u2019s Big Boy<\/a>. Metcalfe grew up spending time at the restaurant, famous for its double-decker hamburger. She went on to study historical food systems at Boston University, where she earned her Ph.D., and taught modern European food history at the University of Texas, Austin. At one time, she conserved rare breeds of livestock in Maine.<\/p>\n

Metcalfe has authored several books on the food supply chain, including Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating<\/em><\/a> (featured in Civil Eats\u2019 2019 summer book guide<\/a>). She also founded Food+City<\/a>, a nonprofit storytelling platform that delves into how cities are fed, and the Food+City Challenge Prize<\/a>, a pitch competition funding food-tech startups around the world.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Metcalfe recently about why she made the documentary, the future of vegan cheese, and how aging builds character both in cheeses and humans.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to make a documentary about cheese\u2014and why now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first urge to pursue this subject came from an unanswered question I had as I finished a book called Humans in Our Food<\/em><\/a>. My interest in food, oddly, is not so much about the food; it\u2019s about the systems that bring the food to the table. Often, they feel industrial and disconnected from humans.<\/p>\n

One of my curiosities was, what are the food stories we\u2019re not <\/em>hearing? Who\u2019s missing and unseen? I sensed that it was the people building pallets, working in food service, driving trucks, packing, and all of that stuff. I wondered if what we imagine about them is true\u2014for example, that they\u2019d all rather be doing something else. Or that they\u2019re working for very little money, are pretty much exploited, kind of a sad picture, and not very smart. Some people think, \u201cWell, if you were really smart, you would not be doing that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

What I did [for the book] was travel all over the world and look at a really simple dish, like a slice of pizza in New York or a rice ball in Japan. Then, I went to see who brought those things together. In doing so, the answer I got was, these unseen people are aspirational. For many immigrants in particular, it\u2019s the way they get in and up and move onward. Some of them, surprisingly, love their jobs. Not all of them, but the assumption was so much one way, and I discovered it\u2019s much more nuanced. One group I was really curious about was affineurs, people who work in caves. [You] might be familiar with going through a winery and seeing people who age wine, but not many people know who\u2019s in caves aging cheese.<\/p>\n

The second thing is that, in becoming older, I was really put off by the conversations that people wanted to have with me even a decade ago, which were, \u201cOh, are you still doing X?\u201d It was all about decline and being careful and not taking any risks and certainly not building up, but designing down. It was disturbing to me. This is not what anyone wants to hear. And how much of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, after all?<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m holding this thought about how cheese ages and I thought, \u201cI wonder if we can learn something about aging a cheese, which gets better over time or transforms [and becomes] what it wants to be in terms of character. Might we push back on this human conversation of decline?\u201d Those two things are why I chose this subject. It wasn\u2019t because I was a cheese lover who wanted to make a film about cheese and found a way.<\/p>\n

Did making \u2018Shelf Life\u2019 turn you into a cheese lover?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At one point, I got a cheese certificate at Boston University because that\u2019s how you learn about things. But if someone said to me, \u201cRobyn, what\u2019s the difference between these two blues?\u201d or asked me to tease out all the different flavor molecules, I would be absolutely helpless. [But cheese is] a wonderful lens to look at life.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

A cheese expert feels the rind that develops during the aging process. (Photo courtesy of Wicked Delicate Films)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

What were some challenges you faced when filming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a challenge getting [the cheesemakers] to talk about aging. I mean, how many people do you know who like to talk about aging? People, especially younger generations, want to be relatable and supportive, and they\u2019re curious about being older, but it\u2019s an awkward conversation.<\/p>\n

(Instead,) everyone wanted to share their cheese [process]. We would get responses like, \u201cThank you for contacting us. This is how we make our cheese.\u201d But we weren\u2019t actually that interested in the how<\/em> but more the why<\/em>. That was very hard, because people are over the moon about cheese and want to talk about it. So, we spent more time getting to know our characters before they felt they had told us their story about cheese and would speak to us about other things.<\/p>\n

Did you learn anything new or surprising from the conversations about cheese and aging?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely. There were a lot of really fun little paradoxes. Initially, we talked to a cheese-making nun<\/a> who was featured in a New Yorker<\/em> article [but didn\u2019t make it into the film]. She had a very interesting spiritual approach to what\u2019s going on with cheese. I was really surprised to see how you could draw a metaphor about cheese as a body. Generations of microbes transform the cheese. They eat the cheese, then they die, and leave it for the next generation of microbes . . . changing the landscape of that cheese as it develops into its character.<\/p>\n

Also, I appreciated cheesemaker Mary Quicke\u2019s<\/a> comments about multiple peaking. People talk a lot about how I\u2019ve \u201cpassed my peak,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not in my prime,\u201d or \u201cAre these the sunset years of my life?\u201d I was surprised by her clarity and understanding that you have a lot of peaks, and you\u2019ll have more peaks. There\u2019s not a limited supply of peaks; it\u2019s just a limited imagination.<\/p>\n

Were any of the people you interviewed for the film concerned about climate change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people were attaching sustainability to their farming practices\u2014for example, Jasper Hill<\/a>, in Vermont. But some of the cheese companies and cheesemakers we spoke to are so small-scale that, in most cases, climate concerns never came up. Jasper Hill uses milk from, shall we say, a largish dairy and sort of sits on the edge of artisanal and scale. That\u2019s the conundrum, isn\u2019t it? If you want to have good food available at a low cost to as many people as possible, then you have to get bigger. In Shelf Life<\/em>, you can see that Jasper Hill already has a robot flipping cheese.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

A quality control group in the underground cellars at Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. (Photo courtesy of Wicked Delicate Films)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

As a historian, were there specific experiences or people you encountered while filming that stuck with you more than others\u2014for instance, the notion that cheese, for Egyptians, was a food they envisioned in the afterlife?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could relate to the archeologist in Egypt trying to read artifacts and divine a story from them. Historians often don\u2019t have the actual pieces of things and are always groping and learning how to tell the story. I was surprised to hear about the Egyptians\u2019 concept of cheese, because you don\u2019t read much about that.<\/p>\n

I was fascinated by the use of old historic buildings being used to age cheese, like old breweries, for example, and some of the bunkers in Europe. Or weird places like subway halls. These repurposed spaces bring up a terroir<\/a> sort of conversation about the minerals, the humidity, the bacteria, and all of that. I\u2019m not in the cheese business, but all these moves for new sanitation standards\u2014removing the bacteria and original wooden shelves where cheese has aged\u2014are disheartening, because often it\u2019s that magic elixir of all those things that make cheese special.<\/p>\n

**\u00a0 **\u00a0 **<\/h4>\n<\/div>
\"Alisha<\/a>

Alisha Norris Jones. (Photo courtesy of Wicked Delicate Films)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n<\/a>
\n
5 Questions for Cheesemonger Alisha Norris Jones<\/div>

Shelf Life <\/em>offers a glimpse into the life of Alisha Norris Jones, an artist and professional cheesemonger based in Chicago. Jones is the creative mind behind @_immortalmilk<\/a>, an “underground\u201d cheese shop that pops up at different locations, offering curated cheese boards inspired by various aspects of culture, from art books and Instagram to Jones\u2019 mood and travels.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her work has garnered acclaim, leading to multiple awards and social media praise. Recently, she took first place at the inaugural Cheesy Chopped Championship<\/a> hosted by the Cheese Culture Coalition<\/a>, an organization promoting equity and inclusion in the cheese industry. We caught up with Jones to learn how she got started, what makes a good pairing, and how economic status influences our relationship with cheese.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you find your way to the fine cheese business?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m originally from Boston and moved to Chicago about 16 years ago. I got my start in food and hospitality by working at Publican Quality Meats<\/a>, serving and making coffee. I eventually became a pastry assistant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was a really bad pastry chef. I lasted about three months and left before I could get fired. But one of the things that caught my attention was working with the cheese case. I went to school for religion and anthropology and have always been interested in food and food justice. Cheese seemed like a really cool way to talk about justice, class, culture and also food, wrapped all up into one thing that\u2019s a living and breathing product\u2014because all cheese is still alive, for the most part, when it arrives on your plate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From there, I fell in love with cheese, worked at a couple more restaurants, and then took a break from fine dining to work in the specialty department at Whole Foods. I ended up being there for about five years and realized I could go for my cheese certification and become more of a professional in this field. It kind of took off from there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tell us more about how cheese is a conduit to conversations about justice and class.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Almost every culture that can produce cheese, across the globe, does. It can be a sign of the elite and bourgeois\u2014a person might only go to France for Brie or pay $300 for a tasting menu. On the flip side, cheese is what got us through industrialization. By preserving milk, a person could bring it to a factory and eat it over the course of a 12-hour shift.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was also a way for people to survive through the \u201870s and \u201880s with government cheese<\/a>. I think it\u2019s fascinating that some folks to this day believe that cheese isn\u2019t for them because it\u2019s perceived as a white thing or a rich thing, when it really affects all levels of society. I can almost tell you where you grew up and what you\u2019ve had access to through what your favorite cheeses are.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As far as justice, seeing the way that land rights can also factor into cheese makes me think about who we\u2019re advocating for. Some cheesemakers have gotten into growing marijuana because they\u2019re not getting dairy subsidies anymore or because their land is being encroached upon by large growers or multinational dairy companies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As an artist with a background in anthropology, how do you approach curating cheese boards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think about the season, especially what\u2019s available in produce and cheese. Then, I think about my mood. Say it\u2019s early spring: A lot of beautiful Loire-style French goat cheese is coming out [then], so I\u2019ll look towards France and get into French cheese culture, like French movies or French visual artists and pick up on whatever palettes and moods they\u2019re using and incorporate that into the larger board.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you know when a cheese pairs well with something? What are you looking for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking for a volume match. If I have a loud cheese, I want something that\u2019ll either be just as loud on a palate, or through texture, to complement it. I\u2019m also thinking about acidity\u2014again, I want something that won\u2019t overpower the cheese\u2014and something interesting that you haven\u2019t really seen before, without necessarily talking down to the person eating it. There\u2019s been this trend of matching junk food with cheese, where I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is cool, but we can be a little bit better about this. Let\u2019s get some fruit in here. Let\u2019s get out of the candy aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cheese raises questions about climate and whether vegan cheese is better for the environment. Do climate concerns come up for you in your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In past years, no. But I am thinking about it now, especially after going to the American Cheese Society<\/a> conference and hearing fellow industry folks say we need to talk about this. With droughts and hotter temperatures, there is a concern about the cows and what milk they will provide when they\u2019re literally overheated. And do we have enough money to keep them in an air-conditioned barn, which is insane to think about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s not one solution to the climate question. I think more folks should be eating better cheese; sometimes, that means eating vegan cheese. Some vegan cheese artisans are doing cool things informed by traditional cheese making, and there should be room for everybody at the table. But cashews and almonds take up a lot of water. [Vegan cheese won\u2019t] solve anything unless we\u2019re careful about climate altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

These conversations have been edited for length and clarity. <\/em><\/p>\n

To find a screening of Shelf Life, or to host one, visit https:\/\/www.shelflifefilm.org\/<\/p>\n

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Stillwagon\u2019s strange philosophical musings on curd set the tone for Shelf Life, a new documentary about the parallels between cheese aging and human aging. 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