{"id":6776,"date":"2026-09-03T03:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/the-big-cheese-a-filmmakers-cheese-journey\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T03:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:01:09","slug":"the-big-cheese-a-filmmakers-cheese-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/the-big-cheese-a-filmmakers-cheese-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Cheese: A Filmmaker’s Cheese Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Big Cheese film poster<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is a film about what it takes to be the best cheesemonger in the world. And it\u2019s a film about this guy.\u201d Such begins the introduction to \u201cThe Big Cheese<\/a>,\u201d a documentary released in late 2025 that has enjoyed critical darling status in film festivals <\/a>and independent movie theaters, garnering media attention from the likes of The New York Times <\/a>and The Today Show, <\/a>and that will be released on several streaming platforms September 1. In a year of mixed headlines concerning the volatility of the cheese industry, it\u2019s safe to say that the attention and enthusiasm surrounding \u201cThe Big Cheese\u201d has been a notable bright spot for curd fans everywhere.<\/p>\n

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The Big Cheese<\/h2>\n
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Filming Mondial Fromage 2023<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The film follows a team of American cheesemongers who take on the world’s top cheese talent at the Mondial du Fromage, an international cheese competition in France, in pursuit of the ultimate prize: respect from their international peers and bragging rights. The leader of the team, Adam Jay Moskowitz is the \u201cthis guy\u201d of the film; \u201cThe Big Cheese\u2019s\u201d Big Cheese, if you will. Between his businesses Larkin Cold Storage<\/a> and Maker to Monger, <\/a>the founding of the Cheesemonger Invitational <\/a>and CMI Masters<\/a>, his advocacy and awareness-raising about addiction and mental health issues, and his recent talkshow\/podcast \u201cA Cheese Course<\/a>,\u201d he already looms large in the American cheese community, perhaps larger than anybody who isn\u2019t actually a cheesemaker does. Given his move into media with \u201cA Cheese Course<\/a>,\u201d with aspirations for bringing attention to cheesemongers and artisanal cheese to the broadest possible audience, you would be forgiven, then, for assuming that he was the force behind the documentary being made to begin with, as I did.<\/p>\n

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Filmmaker and director Sara Joe Wolansky<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was not, however. That credit goes to filmmaker and director Sara Joe Wolansky, the film\u2019s other Big Cheese. Previously a senior video producer for The New Yorker, she left to pursue longer-form storytelling, and cheese was on her hit list. \u201cI have always just truly loved cheese,\u201d she says, \u201cand I knew I wanted to make a story in the world of cheese.\u201d Along the way, the making of the film didn’t just feed her hunger for cheese but transformed her identity as a cheese insider.<\/p>\n

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Conceiving \u201cThe Big Cheese\u201d<\/h2>\n

For Wolansky, \u201ccheese\u201d was simply a broad topic, and what she needed to find was a story worth telling within that realm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to people in the cheese world, and I was reading articles, and I learned about Adam and what he was doing with the Cheesemonger Invitational,\u201d Wolansky recalls, \u201cand I had also come across a previous article talking about him bringing a group of cheesemongers to France to compete at the Mondial du Fromage.<\/a> So, I basically just cold reached out to Adam saying, \u2018hey, I’m a filmmaker. Would love to learn more.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One can easily imagine how well that invitation must have gone over for someone whose stated life\u2019s mission is to shine a spotlight on cheese and cheesemongers. And who isn\u2019t shy \u2014 to put it mildly \u2014 about being in front of a camera or microphone, or being on stage wearing a cow costume as \u201cMr. Moo,\u201d inviting people to \u201cmooditate,\u201d or whipping up the crowd to join him in a chorus of \u201cmoo, baa, maa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically the second I met him it was kind of like this light bulb moment,\u201d says Wolansky. \u201cHe’s such a character and has such an energy to him, and of course his personal story is also really inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she shifted into doing some of the pre-production interviews for the film, during the CMI Masters event in early 2023, her interest in the topic doubled down. \u201cJust learning about all the cheesemongers competing, I was even more interested in doing the project because I thought, \u2018Oh my gosh, every single person here has this amazing story of how they got into cheese, and is doing all this incredible work professionally.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Brief Introduction to \u201cThe Big Cheese\u201d<\/h2>\n
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Fabien Degoulier and Adam Moskowitz with Courtney Johnson<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The finished doc focuses on Moskowitz and his personal and professional journey, but also on Courtney Johnson of Seattle\u2019s Street Cheese<\/a> and Sam Rollins of Cow Bell Fine Cheese<\/a> in Portland, Oregon, as they prepare for and then compete in the 2023 Mondial, plus former Mondial competitor Lillith Spencer of Vermont\u2019s Jasper Hill Farm<\/a>, who joins as a coach for the 2023 team. The climax of the film shows Rollins taking second place, the highest placement for an American cheesemonger since the biennial competition began in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An epilogue also shows Johnson\u2019s third place finish, and Emilia D\u2019Albero\u2019s win at the 2025 Mondial, though the film did not rely on this gold medal finish to deliver on its redemption arc. \u201cIt just so happened that our first festival premiere was going to be in November 2025, and I knew that the team was going back to Mondial in September,\u201d Wolansky says. The original ending of the film was designed to be evergreen, and not dependent on future updates, but, \u201cgiven that they were going back right before the film was going to actually premiere, I thought, \u2018we really should send a camera crew just in case something happens.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Cheese Education<\/h2>\n

Spending what amounted to a couple of years in the cheese realm provided Wolansky with a cheese education. \u201cI came into this as a cheese enthusiast, but I wasn’t especially knowledgeable or anything,\u201d she says. \u201cI think one of the most interesting things I learned over the process of making this documentary is more insight into the cheesemaking process.\u201d She also reports that it has resulted in greater familiarity with a variety of cheeses and increased confidence when facing a cheese case. \u201cA lot of the cheeses now have more memories attached to them for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most impactful insights, though, wasn\u2019t about the cheese itself, but about the people who inhabit this world. Having attended numerous iterations of the Cheesemonger Invitational, plus CMI Masters and Mondial du Fromage, \u201cit really felt like, even though it was a competition, people aren\u2019t really competing against each other,\u201d Wolansky says. \u201cIt really kind of felt like everyone was just on \u2018Team Cheese\u2019 and was just very happy to see cheese succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Becoming Part of Team Cheese<\/h2>\n
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The Big Cheese filmmaker Sara Joe Wolansky<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPart of what’s fun about being a doc filmmaker is having the opportunity to kind of really deep dive into these worlds, to really immerse yourself in cheese, and in cheese people,\u201d says Wolansky.<\/p>\n

As often seems to be the case with cheese people, Wolanksy is humble about whether or not she feels she is actually now a cheese person. \u201cI feel like it’d be more a question for the cheese community of whether they consider me one of them,\u201d she says, \u201cBut I’d like to think so. I’m definitely very invested in cheese.\u201d She also suspects she was recognized by cheesemongers at BKLYN Larder<\/a> right after the film came out, resulting in a surreal moment of feeling like a \u201ccheese celebrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the film she\u2019s also had an experience that most people can relate to, when one starts becoming enthusiastic and knowledgeable about cheese. \u201cI think I\u2019m gonna have to bring cheese to every family gathering from now until eternity,\u201d she says. \u201cI am the cheese lady now among family and friends, and people are always like, \u2018Oh man, I just brought this block cheddar, I’m sorry,\u2019 and I’m like, \u2018no, it’s okay. That’s good too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On a final, even more relatable note, Wolansky reflects on her original impulse to bring \u201cThe Big Cheese\u201d to life. \u201cI just want to sit around and eat cheese all day,\u201d she says. \u201cHonestly, that’s why I wanted to make a film about cheese. I thought, \u2018how can I make this happen for myself professionally with the skills I have?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Cheese film poster \u201cThis is a film about what it takes to be the best cheesemonger in the world. And it\u2019s a film about this guy.\u201d Such begins the introduction to \u201cThe Big Cheese,\u201d a documentary released in late 2025 that has enjoyed critical darling status in film festivals and independent movie theaters, … Okumaya devam et “The Big Cheese: A Filmmaker’s Cheese Journey”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}