Enquire or enrol now

Dates:  

Course 1 March 30- April 3, 2009
Course 2 July 13-17, 2009
Course 3 October 12-16, 2009 (subject to demand)

Times:  Monday 9.00 - 5.00, Tue-Thur 8.30-5.00, Fri 8.30-4.00

Location:  NZ Cheese School Putaruru New Zealand

About the Course

An all practical Cheesemaking workshop where you will be Cheesemaker for 5 days.  After a briefing on the principles of Cheesemaking and Food hygiene, you will be working with Neil Willman and the New Zealand Cheese School team to make a variety of cheeses in small scale from 15 to 300 litre batches, hand crafting some fabulous cheeses.  You do all the work under careful supervision and with lots of instruction. You will prepare the milk, and then make the cheese. This is an ideal opportunity to get some hands on experience making cheese the old fashioned way. You will make a selection of cheeses from the following: clothbound rinded Cheddar or cheddar style e.g. Cheshire, Red Leicester: white mould cheese (either Camembert or Brie): possibly Blue vein: Gouda, Fetta, Halloumi, Ricotta, gourmet Fetta, lactic curd and Parmesan style. You'll also learn the critical quality control points in the processes, basic trouble shooting techniques and much more!

Limit 12 students per course.   You will be asked to do a written assignment during the course. 

Key Topics

• Working safely while Cheesemaking

• Hygiene, cleaning and sanitation requirements for quality cheesemaking.

• Quality assurance practices

• Milk composition and testing

• Pasteurisation versus raw milk what are the risks?

• Starter cultures

• Coagulation of milk

• Moulding of cheese

• Pressing of cheese

• Salting of cheese

• Maturation of cheese

• Cheese manufacturing methods

• Critical quality parameters during making cheese

Course Cost

• NZ$1,450 plus GST before subsidy

• A subsidy may be available for New Zealand residents, reducing the cost by approximately 50%.

What's Included  (Super value)

• All tuition and comprehensive Cheesemaking book "Cheesemaking, Theory and Practice" by Neil Willman.

• Lunches and morning teas

• Cheese tastings

• Protective clothing

• Boot hire

• A gift pack of 2 cheeses

Course Leader    Neil Willman
Neil is a leading authority on specialist cheese.   Neil has assisted many specialty cheesemakers in getting established over the past 15 years.  He is the Master Judge of the New Zealand Cheese Awards, Head Judge of the Australian Grand Dairy Awards, the DIAA National Dairy Products competition and a 3 time judge at the World Champion Cheese contest.  He has also judged at the British Cheese Awards.  Neil has been training cheese enthusiasts for over 25 years in Australia and New Zealand and loves to share his passion for cheese.

 Who should attend?