✍️ Quote of the Day:
“Cheese is proof that transformation takes both time and daring.”
— M, Meetup Organizer
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🔍 Event Overview: This isn’t just about making cheese. It’s about rethinking the materials of everyday life, seeing design in the dairy world
In a world where food often arrives shrink-wrapped, pre-flavored, and with nothing left to do with it apart form eating it, making cheese by hand — and with creativity — is an act of great curiosity.
This workshop is more than learning a skill. It’s a conversation with microbiology and the centuries-old ingenuity of human hands turning something fleeting into something enduring — and, in Paula’s -the head of De Kaasserie- case, something deeply creative.
At De Kaasserie, we’ll transform two litres of humble supermarket milk into two distinct creations: a rennet-coagulated cheese and an acid-coagulated cheese — each born from a different path of transformation. We’ll go beyond technique to explore the why and how of cheese, from the alchemy of enzymes to the artistry of flavoring and imprinting shape.
Paula will invite us to see milk not just as an ingredient, but as a raw material — ready to be shaped, pressed, and transformed like a designer working with clay, ink, or fabric. Drawing on her own journey from designer to cheesemaker, she’ll encourage us to think about cheese as both food and edible printwork.
We’ll end with a celebratory tasting of Paula’s homemade cheeses and a take-home kit (rennet, calcium, cheesecloth) so you can continue exploring at home.
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🤔 Why Is This an Uncommon Experience?
This isn’t just about making cheese. It’s about rethinking the materials of everyday life, seeing design in the dairy world, and understanding how intention leaves an imprint.
Between stirring, cutting, and pressing, we’ll reflect on how cheesemaking is part chemistry, part culture, and part personal expression. For the curious and the reflective, this is an edible craft that connects you to both the ancient and the immediate, the traditional and the off-beat.
Moreover, De Kaasserie it's the only Academy of Cheese training partner in the Netherlands, providing both local workshops and internationally recognized certification in a creatively rich setting.
It’s a workshop for:
- The curious eater who wants to know how and why
- The tactile learner who wants to feel the transformation happen under his fingerprints
- The creative soul who likes to turn simple and common materials into something beautiful
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🧀 What You'll Experience:
- Seeing cheese as a design object
- Reconnecting with the origins of what you eat
- Making something that could never come from a factory conveyor belt
- Learning a craft that blends science, tradition, and personal expression
- Getting your hands in the curds, feeling textures change under your fingertips
- Gaining skills (and your own cheese) to take home
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📅 Schedule
10:00 – 10:30 → Arrival, tea, and introduction to the creative approach of De Kaasserie & Paula’s idea of cheese as an “edible print”
10:30 – 10:45 → Preparing the first litre of milk for rennet-coagulated cheese
10:45 – 11:15 → Begin acid-coagulated cheese while the first rests
11:15 – 11:30 → Break and browse Paula’s collection of cheese recipe books
12:00 – 12:30 → Shape, press, and finish the rennet cheese
12:30 – 12:45 → Tasting session with homemade cheese
12:45 – 13:00 → Wrap-up and take-home kit distribution
NOTE: The Meetup host will be Paula herself. Please identify as part of the meetup group, so everybody from the meetup can be located next to eachother.
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✅ Practical Details
📍 Location: De Kaasserie, Bellamystraat 8
🎟️ Price: €89 (includes workshop, tasting, and take-home kit: rennet, calcium, cheesecloth, and your freshly made cheeses)
🎫 Tickets: Buy you tickets for the meetup day/time by clicking the link below.
https://www.dekaasserie.com/booking-calendar/basic-cheesemaking-workshop?referral=service_details_widget&timezone=Europe%2FAmsterdam
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🤓 Learn More
De Kaasserie is a creative cheesemaking atelier and workshop space based in Amsterdam West, founded and run by designer-turned-cheesemaker Paula Colchero.
Paula brings her rich background in interior architecture, industrial design, and fine arts to cheesemaking, making De Kaasserie a thoughtfully designed environment where food, design, and personal histories intersect.
https://www.dekaasserie.com/about
https://www.facebook.com/dekaasserie
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👄 The Artist Paula Colchero Speaks
"De Kaasserie is the place where I put together my love for design and food. It is the place where my 9 year old self missing Mexican food, can be empowered over and over again building her belonging through cheese and invite others who have felt like that to do the same.
My background is in interior architecture, industrial design and fine arts. My language lies among these three. I refer to the functionality of an object or space because I am interested in people’s direct experience. I will at the same time approach it with an intention to speak of a particular subject or issue around it."
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👄The Meetup Organizer Speaks
"Hey you! You’re in the Netherlands — the cheese capital of the world. If you don’t learn how to make cheese here, where else? It’s basically a national (and tasty) rite of passage… and maybe even a crime not to know how to do it yourself."
