{"id":30996,"date":"2017-07-12T15:21:07","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T19:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=30996"},"modified":"2019-06-18T10:59:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T14:59:44","slug":"planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Planet<\/a>
\nPlanet Cheese<\/strong><\/a> is a weekly blog devoted to everything cheese: products, people, places, news, and views. James Beard Award\u2013winning journalist Janet Fletcher writes <\/em>Planet Cheese from her home in Napa Valley. Janet is the author of <\/em>Cheese & Wine, <\/em>Cheese & Beer, and <\/em>The Cheese Course and an occasional contributor to <\/em>culture<\/strong>. Visit <\/em>janetfletcher.com<\/a> to sign up for <\/em>Planet Cheese and view Janet\u2019s current schedule of cheese appreciation classes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Kiri Fisher\u2019s cheese journey has been a difficult one, to say the least, marked by tragedy, natural disaster and rude awakenings. But Fisher, the spunky proprietor of the Cheese School of San Francisco<\/a> and the new Fisher\u2019s Cheese & Wine<\/a>, which opens this week in California\u2019s Marin County, has yet to hit a pothole she couldn\u2019t get past.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Fisher partnered with Daphne Zepos to purchase the five-year-old school, Zepos received a cancer diagnosis and succumbed in three months. Two years later, the school suffered devastating flood damage after a downpour. But Fisher got the doors open again and has steered the enterprise in new directions, keeping it viable as the only independent cheese school in the country. Her experience holds lessons for any would-be entrepreneur and a reminder that failure is often the prelude to success.<\/p>\n

You were a young city-magazine publisher when the economy tanked in 2007-2008 and you had to fold. How did that experience lead you to cheese?<\/em><\/p>\n

When we shut down, my calming image was that I was going to drive through that rainbow tunnel in Marin and hang out with some sheep. I was getting lucrative offers to work in advertising sales, but that was the part of publishing I hated the most. I went on Craig\u2019s List and typed in \u201ccheesemaker\u201d and Point Reyes Farmstead<\/a> was looking for one. I begged them for an interview. They said, \u201cWe love your passion but you don\u2019t know anything about cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they advised you to work in retail?<\/em><\/p>\n

They said there\u2019s no better way to learn about cheese than behind a retail counter. So I worked at the Pasta Shop<\/a> in Oakland, interned on a goat farm in France and then worked at Tumalo Farms<\/a> in Bend. That\u2019s when I realized that I was not excited to be a cheesemaker. Cheesemaking is a lot of cleaning.<\/p>\n

So you bought the Cheese School with Daphne.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, and a year to the day after that, we had her memorial service at the school. I thought, \u201cNow what am I going to do? Sell it?\u201d I was open to any idea that felt better than running it on my own. But while I was trying to figure it out, the day-to-day business had to keep going. By the time I realized that the school was not throwing off enough income to attract another partner, I had figured out how to run it.<\/p>\n

\"Monger's

Monger’s Choice (clockwise from left): Appleby’s Cheshire, Triangle de Bique and Beaufort at Fisher’s<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

How has the school evolved since that time?<\/em><\/p>\n

We threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall\u2014we moved, we increased the class size, we limited the amount of alcohol we poured\u2014and we lost some regulars in the process. But you need to grow and re-invent; the trick is making more people happy than you make unhappy.<\/p>\n

We were doing all these serious classes for super-enthusiasts, but there\u2019s only so much of an audience for deep dives into Cheddar or the microbiology of cheese rinds. We can sell \u201cMozzarella and Burrata Making\u201d or \u201cCr\u00e8mes and Bubbles\u201d all day long. Anything on France or Italy\u2014particularly France\u2014sells. Here are the sell words: France. Wine. Best.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned over time that we\u2019re 10 to 15 percent academic and 85 to 90 percent entertainment. The Cheese School is a night out for people. But I love the business either way.<\/p>\n

A standalone cheese school doesn\u2019t make money but it\u2019s a great addition to a cheese shop. And it\u2019s an excellent way to feed a private-event program, catering and private classes. People come to the Cheese School for a class and then say, \u201cCan I bring my team here?\u201d We are in the land of team building, after all, and that has created a viable business.<\/p>\n

And now Fisher\u2019s Cheese & Wine. What\u2019s the plan?<\/em><\/p>\n

The retail cheese counter will have about 60 cheeses, international and domestic. Not a comprehensive selection but the most exciting cheeses out there. Lancashire, Cheshire, Gubbeen and Hafod from Neal\u2019s Yard Dairy<\/a>. Pascal Beillevaire cheeses from France. We have 48 seats indoors and out. We\u2019re here for you if you are serving cheese for a party, and eventually we’ll have classes or tastings.<\/p>\n

What’s next for the Cheese School of San Francisco?<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been looking to move the school, and hopefully I’ll have an announcement soon about that.<\/p>\n

Fisher\u2019s Cheese & Wine<\/strong><\/a>
\n2201 Larkspur Landing Circle (Marin Country Mart)
\nLarkspur, CA
\n415-779-2201<\/a><\/p>\n

Open daily from 11 a.m. for cheese, charcuterie, cheese boards, sandwiches, salads, cheese accompaniments, wine and beer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

 <\/h1>\n

<\/center>
<\/center>\"Planet<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kiri Fisher talks about the Cheese School of San Francisco, her start in cheese, and her latest venture, Fisher’s Cheese & Wine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":30999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1994,1042,13906,13908,13907,1131,6986,2632,983,13911,1272,13909,13910],"coauthors":[305],"class_list":["post-30996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-burrata","tag-cheddar","tag-cheese-school-of-san-francisco","tag-daphne-zepos","tag-fishers-cheese-wine","tag-janet-fletcher","tag-kiri-fisher","tag-marin-county","tag-mozzarella","tag-pascal-beillevaire","tag-point-reyes-farmstead","tag-the-pasta-shop","tag-tumalo-farms"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlanet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kiri Fisher talks about the Cheese School of San Francisco, her start in cheese, and her latest venture, Fisher's Cheese & Wine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-12T19:21:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-18T14:59:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Janet Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Janet Fletcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/\",\"name\":\"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-12T19:21:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-18T14:59:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/3d0f46d40c9d1fdd1405ab7c76bc178e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":368,\"caption\":\"Kiri Fisher\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/3d0f46d40c9d1fdd1405ab7c76bc178e\",\"name\":\"Alyssa Kim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/147ff501c1da04994896c3d2cd8c904e\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/10368310_10100947003803605_5735080190250376679_o-1-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/10368310_10100947003803605_5735080190250376679_o-1-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Alyssa Kim\"},\"description\":\"Alyssa is culture's former Web Editor. Raised in Mass., she's excited to be back in her home state after six years of working in journalism and TV production in NYC.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/alyssa-kim\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School - culture: the word on cheese","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School","og_description":"Kiri Fisher talks about the Cheese School of San Francisco, her start in cheese, and her latest venture, Fisher's Cheese & Wine","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_published_time":"2017-07-12T19:21:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-18T14:59:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Janet Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Janet Fletcher","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/","name":"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-07-12T19:21:07+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-18T14:59:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/3d0f46d40c9d1fdd1405ab7c76bc178e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/KiriFisher.jpeg","width":750,"height":368,"caption":"Kiri Fisher"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/planet-cheese-life-lessons-cheese-school\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Planet Cheese: Life Lessons from a Cheese School"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/3d0f46d40c9d1fdd1405ab7c76bc178e","name":"Alyssa Kim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/147ff501c1da04994896c3d2cd8c904e","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/10368310_10100947003803605_5735080190250376679_o-1-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/10368310_10100947003803605_5735080190250376679_o-1-96x96.jpg","caption":"Alyssa Kim"},"description":"Alyssa is culture's former Web Editor. Raised in Mass., she's excited to be back in her home state after six years of working in journalism and TV production in NYC.","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/alyssa-kim\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30996"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}