News & Who we are

2025 course dates for all courses are now available

To keep you connected to the profession worldwide, Makers & Mongers now offers discount subscriptions to Profession Fromager magazine (online, in English).

What is Makers & Mongers all about?

We connect cheese professionals…. During her career working in culinary and cheese education, working with clients, businesses, and professional associations Sue has connected with thousands of professionals around the world. She has taught students from some 30 countries, has served on the Board of the American Cheese Society (USA), is a Patron of the Academy of Cheese (UK) and contributed to their study materials, she is a member of Les Fromagers de France (France), and has served on cheese juries in many countries.

Makers & Mongers is based on the notion of networking: connecting cheese professionals through publications, tours, education, and consulting on marketing projects. As a community we can be smarter, more effective, and…simply have more fun! The best way to grow is to connect!

This site offers some ways that Makers & Mongers can connect you with colleagues and enrich your professional life. Contact us if you have more ideas!

Meet Sue Sturman
(click on link, above)

Here’s a fun interview with Sue
by Sam Studd, on Instagram as The Studd Siblings.
Sam’s an alumnus of the Mons Formation Affinage course (2024).

La Fédération des Fromagers de France au World Cheese Awards

Sue in her own words! Listen to this interview by Sue’s friend, colleague and former student Agatha Kishchenko on The Counter Chronicles.

Installée de nouveau en France, pays qu’elle connait bien, Susan a été Directrice adjointe de l‘école Ritz-Escoffier où elle a enseigné le fromage. Présidente du Comité à l’ACS, elle a dirigé la création de l’examen Certified Professional ™ en fromages du programme American Cheese Society, et a été souvent invitée à des conférences de l’ACS. Elle était aussi élue au Comité de Direction de l’ACS. En 2011 Sue a été intronisée en tant que Garde et Juré dans la Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. du 2012 au 2018 elle était directrice du département Anglophone de OCC : Academie Opus Caseus. Elle participe souvent aux jurys nationaux et internationaux, et propose des formations pour les jurés. Elle a créé des Insider’s Tours, destinés aux professionnels. Elle traduit des textes spécialisés sur les fromages pour des publications Profession Fromager. Membre de la Guilde Internationale des Fromagers depuis 2011, elle était élévée au rang de Maître Fromager en 2024.

Looking for Anthony Femia’s shop in Melbourne, Australia? It’s got a great name: Maker & Monger. Click here to visit!

Fabulous new film, debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC in June 2024:
Shelf Life. About cheese. About life. About aging. (Look for Sue and loads of her colleagues and friends.)

Shelf Life offers a sensory delight that will leave you craving a taste of the world’s
finest cheeses while pondering the more profound questions of life and mortality.

Sue Sturman

Sue Sturman  has over 30 years in cheese education. At the ACS, as Committee Chair she led the creation of the American Cheese Society’s Certified Cheese Professional™ Exam program and has been a frequent presenter at ACS conferences. She continues to work with the ACS to develop and expand certification offerings. She has contributed study materials to the Academy of Cheese (UK) certificate program.

Sue is an international judge at competitions for cheese and cheesemongers, including ProCheese Awards (Ukraine), the World Cheese Awards, the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition, GourmetQuesos (Spain), Farmstead Cheese Awards (France), Mondial du Fromage et des Produits Laitiers (France), ProCheese Awards (Ukraine), the Italian Cheese Awards (Italy), and the Concours Générale Agricole (France), the Scottish Cheese Awards (Scotland), Concours Sera (Poland), and others. She is a regular judge at the Affineur of the Year competition.

Through the Centre Interprofessionnel de Formation des Commerces de l’Alimentation (CIFCA) she has served on the final exam jury for the Certificat de Qualification Professionnel (CQP) Vendeur-Conseil Cremiers-Fromagers (France), and the Certificate d’Aptitude Professionnel Primer-Cremièr (CAP), recognized by the French National Education system. She has also developed a customizable judge training program that has been offered in Paris, London, and Krzeszow, Poland.

Sue started teaching cheese in 1993, as Assistant Director of the Ecole Ritz-Escoffier cooking school at the Paris Ritz Hotel. She continued in New York as an instructor at New York retailers including Murray’s Cheese, and for private and corporate clients. Sue currently teaches English for Cheesemongers at CIFCA for the CQP program.

She has written articles for cheese publications in the US, the UK, and France, and translates the international edition of the French publications (periodicals and books) of Profession Fromager, and wrote the revised (2022) edition of Le Lexique Anglais du Fromager for the Fédération des Fromagers de France.

She has served on the Board of the American Cheese Society and on the Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Cheese Guild. She has served as cheese judge in France, Spain, Norway, England, Italy, and the USA and has trained judges for the World Cheese Awards.

In 2012 she partnered with Laurent Mons to create the Academie MonS, an English-language training program based at Mons Fromager-Affineur for cheese professionals from around the world. For eight years together they taught two levels of courses for cheese retailers, an affinage course, and in association with Ivan Larcher offered several English-language cheesemaking courses in France. This program eventually evolved into Mons Formation, with training partners in Japan, Ukraine, Brazil, Italy, Russia, Australia and the USA.

Sue consults for a variety of clients, ‘connecting cheese professionals’ around the world.

Using her international network of colleagues and friends, she developed the Insider’s Tour series. Offered out of Paris, London, Madrid, New York, New England, and San Francisco, Insider’s tours are 4-day tours packed with visits to cheese retailers, affineurs, wholesalers, and cheesemakers. Small groups (maximum 6) of cheese professionals are inspired by new ideas, exchange with fellow participants and expand their worldwide networks of colleagues. When possible, participants have the opportunity to serve as cheese judges in national competitions.

(Click here for a detailed resume.)

I worked with Susan, participating at two Mons Formation training courses, and am impressed by her highly professional preparation. In the months following our meeting I came to appreciate her knowledge and huge network she has in the cheese business worldwide. She is beloved and respected by all the people I met.

I think Susan has as great a depth of knowledge and ability to communicate about cheese of anyone I have met in this business.

I took advantage of her approach to create business relationships with other people. Thanks to her I improved my knowledge and I met more than 50 new people involved in the cheese business, giving me an opportunity to expand my relationships and increase my cheese sales.

She is passionate and open minded, always with an answer or in contact with somebody that knows the answer. I am happy to have had business with her and we will continue to collaborate in many forms in the future.

I know Susan will be able to help me with future challenges that I will face with my company.

Fausto Caserio
Italian Food Hunters
Bergamo, Italy

Certifications

Maître Fromager, Guilde Internationale des Fromagers
American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional
American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Sensory Expert
Academy of Cheese (UK) Level One Certificate

Judging

Sue Sturman has judged at the following competitions over the past decade. She has trained and referred fellow judges.