The Cheese Hole: A Day in the Life of a Brooklyn Cheesemaker

Sam Frank, who oversees the ripening of cheeses and works in the cheese cellar at Crown Finish Caves in Brooklyn, filmed the process, which takes us into the mystery of producing mature cheeses with rich flavors. Sam has been working with dairy products since he was in college in Vermont. Now he helps 25,000 pounds of cheese mature in a deep, dark 19th-century cellar beneath the streets of Brooklyn.

In addition to snapping photos of the process, where he and his cellar colleagues turn, wash and salt the cheese wheels, Sam also took some extremely appetizing shots of the products themselves and reflected in a photo shoot what happens on the roof of the enterprise where employees collect organic honey. At the end of the day, he captured the serving of these same cheeses at a gala evening in Prospect Park. The cheesemaker also talked about the history of the cheese cellar, the benefits of the cheese mite and how he got into this amazing and very fragrant world of cheese production.

Here's what Sam Frank had to say about his day:

My bosses kept bees on the roof for years. They added frames to an existing hive, and the suit protected against stings and helped drive bees out of the hive.