Faculty Bios
Ariel Clute |
Ariel Clute is an assistant at The Cheese School. Ariel spent several years as a professional cheesemonger at Cheese Plus as well as at The Pasta Shop in Market Hall. She is a graduate of the California College of the Arts where she earned a BFA, and also works at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland. |
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Judy Creighton |
Judy Creighton, a core instructor at The Cheese School, is a cheese educator and former owner of cheese and wine shops in San Francisco for 25 years, as well as a consultant for retailers, distributors and importers. She served as a judge in the 2003 and 2006 American Cheese Society competitions. She is a guest lecturer at City College of San Francisco Hotel & Restaurant Program and also presents cheese and wine seminars for wineries as well as corporate and non-profit events. She has presented cheese tastings for Bon Appetit magazine and writes a cheese column for the Calaveras Enterprise in Murphys, CA. |
Sheana Davis |
Sheana Davis—chef, cheese maker, caterer, culinary educator, and entrepreneur—has been enthusiastically supporting the artisan and farmstead cheese movement for 20 years. In 2009, she proudly released her own cheese, Delice de la Vallee, and this year her Creme de Fromage will be introduced to the market. As host of the annual Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference, she brings together authors, vendors and cheese makers from all over the United States. Sheana recently opened The Epicurean Connection, a neighborhood specialty cheese shop in Sonoma, featuring fresh soups & sandwiches, take-out, and local artisan food fare. She hosts classes and special events at her shop, and also supports local community organizations with a monthly non-profit night. When not behind her counter, you will find Sheana teaching cooking classes, conducting workshops and participating as a guest chef at local and national culinary events. |
Lynne Devereux |
Lynne Devereux brings a background rich in culinary expertise and food education, developing engaging educational programs for both professional and consumer audiences. She is a specialist in California artisan cheeses and enthusiastic supporter of the American artisan cheese industry. Since 2007, Lynne has directed the enormously successful California Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma, California. She was the founding president of the California Artisan Cheese Guild. Her company, Butter Communications, represents artisan cheese producers and specialty food makers in marketing and PR programs. |
Wil Edwards |
A native of New York City, Wil Edwards got his start as a dairy professional at Harley Farms Goat Dairy in Pescadero, CA, where he remained for almost eight years before moving on to follow his passion for culinary education. He is currently creating his own venture, designed to bring the public into the intimate world of a variety of artisan food producers, allowing participants to discover the heart and soul of the people behind the food we eat. Wil teaches classes and gives demonstrations at Draeger's Cooking School as well as at other venues throughout the Bay Area. |
Janet Fletcher |
Janet Fletcher is the author of Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying published by Chronicle Books; The Cheese Course (Chronicle Books); and several other books on food and wine. She writes a weekly syndicated cheese column for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she is a staff food and wine writer; her work for the Chronicle has won three James Beard Awards. She also authors the “Cheese Focus” column for Specialty Food, a trade publication, and writes frequently on wine and food for numerous national publications, including Metropolitan Home, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Saveur and Food & Wine. Fletcher trained at the Culinary Institute of America and at Berkeley's celebrated Chez Panisse restaurant. She lives in Napa Valley with her winemaker husband. |
Colette Hatch |
Colette Hatch, a core instructor at The Cheese School, is an internationally known authority on food and wine whose career spans more than three decades and covers all aspects of food and wine marketing and management. After earning a degree in Hospitality Management from the Lycee d'Etat Poligny in Jura, France, Colette managed several fine hotels in France, England and Corsica and later completed a presitigious apprenticeship at the Michelin three-star restaurant Jeunet. Upon moving to the US, Colette combined her front-of-house management experience with her food and wine expertise as sommelier and service consultant at Restaurant du Village, a four-star restaurant in Chester, CT. She also founded and managed the catering operation at Au Musee restaurant, part of the Wadsworth Athaneum in Hartford. Since moving to the emerging culinary mecca of Sonoma County, Colette has established a consulting practice serving specialty food retailers, wineries and restaurants throughout the Bay Area. |
Kirstin Jackson |
Kirstin Jackson is the wine bar manager, cheese program director, and a food and wine class instructor at Solano Cellars Wine Shop and Wine Bar in Albany, as well as wine consultant to Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland. She is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy and cooked professionally before returning to school to earn a BA in anthropology at UC Berkeley. When not cooking or sipping, Kirstin writes about cheese and wine for publications and authors "It's Not You, It's Brie" and is currently working on a book named after her blog. |
Laura Martinez |
Laura Martinez is the owner of The Artisan Palate, a company that supports the flourishing artisan food industry through tasting events, copy writing, freelance food writing, and celebrations of real food. Her food training comes from a deep appreciation of the aromas and flavors produced by seasonal, local, and regional foods, ongoing research for food-related stories and articles, several practical yet enjoyable years behind The Pasta Shop’s cheese counter, ongoing coordination of sensory and taste evaluations for the California Olive Oil Council, volunteer work with CUESA at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza, service as a founding board member of the California Artisan Cheese Guild, and a lifetime of happily cooking for a large and appreciative family. |
Marni Rubin |
Marni Rubin is a wine educator and the owner of her own company, Marni Rubin Wine Education. She teaches wine classes around the Bay area, as well as custom-designs corporate and private in-home wine events. Marni’s clients include Savvy Cellar Wine Bar, Whole Foods Markets, chocolatier Michael Recchiuti, the Cheese School of San Francisco, and corporate clients such as Bank of America, Oracle and McKesson Corporation. Marni is a self-taught and boot-strapping entrepreneur, who is a Certified Specialist of Wine through the National Society of Wine Educators and has passed the First Level Exam of the Court of Master Sommeliers. Her ultimate goal as a wine educator is to make wine more approachable and fun for all levels of wine lover. In addition to wine, Marni loves all things chocolate and cheese. |
Juliana Uruburu
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Juliana Uruburu directs the cheese selection, merchandising, education, and promotions for the Bay Area's renowned Pasta Shop. Working with cheese for over 20 years, she is a frequent panelist and cheese judge at industry conferences including the American Cheese Society and is the head cheese judge for the California State Expo. Recognized as an individual dedicated to promoting quality cheese and consumption, Juliana was recently inducted into the Guilde des Fromagers, dedicating her life’s work to promoting the consumption of cheese. |
Sara Vivenzio |
Sara Vivenzio, the founder and Director of The Cheese School of San Francisco, is just plain crazy about cheese. Before opening The Cheese School in July 2006, she was a professional cheese monger and cheese buyer at Cheese Plus, a leading specialty cheese retailer in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood. |
Abby Ward |
Abby Ward is an assistant at The Cheese School. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has experience in several highly acclaimed professional kitchens, including The Sagamore Resort in upstate New York. Abby's inspiration comes from a culinarily adventurous aunt who always came up with new dishes for her and her family to enjoy. Abby has been discovering and learning about cheese in particular since moving to San Francisco in 2007, and keeps very busy in her 'spare' time as co-Founder and Chef for a catering company, SF Delicious. |
Laura Werlin |
Laura Werlin is positively passionate about cheese and has written four highly acclaimed books on the subject: Cheese Essentials (Stewart, Tabori & Chang 2007), The All American Cheese and Wine Book (Stewart, Tabori & Chang 2003), Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stovetop, Sandwich Maker, and Grill (Stewart, Tabori and Chang 2004), and the pioneering The New American Cheese (Stewart, Tabori & Chang 2000), Her passion and expertise on these topics have landed her on The CBS Early Show, the Television Food Network, Martha Stewart Living Television, and numerous local television and radio segments from coast to coast. She also writes for national magazines including Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, Saveur, Cooking Pleasures, Cooking Light, Country Living, and several others. Laura is on the board of the American Cheese Society and is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, the James Beard Foundation, and the San Francisco Professional Food Society. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. |
Daphne Zepos  |
Daphne Zepos ranks among the most outspoken and dynamic cheese advocates in the United States. She is a former board member for the American Cheese Society, and was Chairperson of the ACS Annual Cheese Competition from 1999 to 2002. Daphne is a co-founder of the Cheese of Choice Coalition, an advocacy group dedicated to the preservation of raw milk and small production cheeses. From 2002 to 2005 Daphne Zepos played a lead role at the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center. She selected and matured more than 300 cheeses in Artisnala's affinage cheese caves, assembled many cheese collections, established Artisanal's Affinage Internship program, and, with Max McCalman, created and taught Artisanal's Cheese Master Class Program. In 2006, Daphne founded the Essex Street Cheese Company, which imports four hand-selected cheeses from Europe: a French Comté, an Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano and two Dutch aged Goudas. Daphne consults with cheese shops and teaches several classes each month for consumer and professional audiences and acts as a judge in cheese competitions in the US and in Europe.
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