# Welcome to The Cheese Box Toronto
### Your culinary observation deck. 
What happens when a professionally trained chef, a former flight attendant and a lifelong food enthusiast turns a home kitchen into a laboratory for cheesemaking?
That’s what I’m here to find out.
I’ve spent much of my life around food. I grew up on working dairy farms, trained under Scottish chef Nick Nairn, cooked professionally in restaurants and catering, and had the rather unusual experience of cooking for the Weston family. I’ve also taught at university, worked in technology and pursued a law degree. My life has rarely followed a conventional recipe.
Today, my focus is **making cheese at home, understanding the science behind it, and finding out what happens when professional kitchen experience meets a healthy dose of curiosity.**
## So, what’s happening in the Cheese Box?
I’m making and ageing cheeses, experimenting with cultures and techniques, and recording what I learn along the way. That means looking at the finished cheese as well as the process: its texture, flavour, structure, what worked, what didn’t, and what I’d change next time.
I’ll also be putting those cheeses to work in the kitchen. What is the point of making a wonderful cheese if you don’t explore what you can do with it? From pizza and traditional dishes to recipes that call for a cheese you can’t readily buy here, the experiments won’t end when the wheel comes out of the press.
And because I’ve spent years cooking professionally, I’m interested in more than whether something is technically successful. How does it taste? What does it cost? How much work does it take? Is making it yourself genuinely better, and is the result worth the effort?
Sometimes the answer will be an emphatic yes. Sometimes the verdict may be rather less enthusiastic.
## A little science, a lot of food, and no need to take ourselves too seriously.
The Cheese Box Toronto is a record of work in progress: the successes, the failures, the discoveries and the occasional experiment that seemed like a good idea at the time.
This isn’t a commercial cheese shop. It’s a place to explore the craft of cheesemaking, share what I learn, and bring together food, science, technique and a lifetime of culinary experience.
If you’re interested in cheese, curious about how things are made, or simply enjoy watching someone investigate whether an idea is worth pursuing, you’ve come to the right place.
**Welcome to The Cheese Box Toronto. Let’s see what we can make.**
Exhibit A (The Cover Photo): My experimental clothbound blue-cheddar hybrid. I purposely inoculated it with Penicillium roqueforti just to see what would happen. Piercing day is tomorrow, and the anticipation is real.
Exhibit B: A freshly finished, Gouda-style Dutch spiced Leyden wheel packed with caraway and cumin. To keep things interesting, I’m about to start washing the rind in salt and B. linens to really let that rich, 6% high milk fat content shine over the next few months.
Expect a healthy dose of wit, behind-the-scenes looks at the science, and raw notes from a chef reclaiming food security one wheel at a time.
Whether you’re a fellow Toronto foodie, a curd nerd, or just here for the turbulence of the journey, I’m glad you’ve landed here.
Drop a comment below and let me know: Are you team “Sharp & Funky” or team “Smooth & Spiced”? 
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