When I was in elementary school my classmates and I were asked to stand in front of the class, introduce ourselves, and tell everyone our favorite kind of pizza. Most of my classmates chose pepperoni, many picked cheese, and, one kid said olives. When it was my turn I looked to my peers and said, “Hi, my name is Susanna and my favorite pizza is Al Forno's Margherita pizza.”

This introduction is much better suited to the Culture community than to my eight year old classmates. For those of you who don't know, Al Forno is a world renowned restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island and it is the birth place of the grilled pizza. The margherita pizza is always on the menu and it never disappoints.

So recently, Will asked me to come up with some ideas for an ongoing online feature that will be on culture’s website. It took me a while, but a couple weeks ago I finally settled on a weekly blog/article featuring someone of interest in the food world. At first I was thinking that it would just be random bloggers that no one has really heard of. But since I am really looking to have fun and create interesting content for you to read, I decided to shoot for the moon. That’s when the adventure began. I started sending out a billion emails, that might be an exaggeration, only a million. The response I got, while still in progress, is quite promising. I have just completed an interview with Jonathan Gold, a popular and super cool food critic in LA and I have a bunch of well-known chefs signed on too. So keep a lookout, I will be posting one soon! 

My name is Sarah Jung and I’m lactose intolerant.

No, not really.  Actually, kind of.  It’s a placebo-induced intolerance; one that I’ve been trying to overcome ever since I found out my mom only told us we’re allergic to dairy because she (still) believes it’s bad for our health.  Ah, those cheeseless, everything-less pizza days.  And yet, despite any faux-intolerance, I’ve always loved milky coffee, found myself lingering at the cheese counter in delis and supermarkets on more than a few occasions, and quickly made a habit of trading my bean burrito for string cheese during lunchtime. 

Sadly, my California adventure is coming to an end, which means that my days with Culture are now over.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my interning experience with Culture, drinking numerous cups of mate and listening to reggae music whilst working with Will in the cafe "Delta of Venus" in Davis. We have shared more than cheese stories (Will is a great fan of fluffy ducklings and yo-yoing dogs, for anyone that is interested!) and I have learnt a great deal about cheese, writing, publishing, journalism, social media and general magazine employment life.

I can confidently say that I have become much more interested in cheese since my internship began, and, as written in a previous post, I have found my pockets a little lighter as my fridge has simultaneously been filling up with fine cheeses!