Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Austin and I currently hold the title of Culture’s Production Intern. What really is involved in my role with the magazine? A great glimpse of just about every area of the magazine from the photo shoots, to sourcing ingredients or props, web content, and helping to ‘dispose’ of absurd amounts of cheese.

I ‘fell’ into the world of cheese in a manner that I now have discovered is very common amongst people involved in the food world- a sort of standby gig while planning my next grueling kitchen job as a cook. As with the world of wine or beer, I fell in love with tastes and aromas of particular cheeses and had fun remembering cheese names and origins like Hoch Ybrig from Switzerland or Saenkanter from Holland. I create visions of rock star persona in my head when I hear names like Rolf Beeler or Marcel Petite (‘Straight Outta Comte’). Cheese for me, as with much of what my food career has engrained in me, is like belonging to a club where tapping into infinite sources of knowledge and networking are like earning merits and gaining rank. I’ve hung up my chef whites for the time being (3 years) and am really ‘milking’ this monger deal.

My first impressions of being an intern were running back and forth with coffees and lunch for the big bosses while being rewarded with the occasional cheese ‘Scooby snacks.’ However, (clearing my throat) in the fist year with Culture I have been sourcing cheeses, ‘escorting’ and ‘grooming’ cheeses for photo shoots, traveling with culture to shows and events and, yes, fetching lattes and sandwiches for the crew (the ‘Scooby snacks’ are really worth it--).

So here I am with another insight of Culture as a blog contributor. I look forward to recollecting behind the scenes stories, elbow bumping with the cheese wigs, and anything else to open more doors to da club.

-Austin
austin@culturecheesemag.com