Cheese specialist.
Wage
20.000–45.000 rubles (russia.trud.com)
Place of work
Responsibilities
This profession is more of a calling. After all, you just need to fall in love with this activity and completely surrender to it in order to get a really worthwhile product. Cheese makers are engaged in a kind of creativity, because in order to get all kinds of cheese, they use one main ingredient - milk. Masters use special technologies, as well as various microorganisms, and monitor the process of creating their masterpiece.
The skill of a true professional in this business can be called his ability to correctly assess the characteristics that are inherent in a clot of curd. Cheese makers independently control the temperature, concentration and acidity of the brine, and also taste the result of salting in the brine pool. Then they dry the mixture and send the product to storage. A professional cheese maker must be careful, patient and accurate in his calculations.
Important qualities
Each cheese maker is a bit of a chemist, physicist, creative person, attentive and pedantic artisan. The usual shift of the cheese maker starts at 8 am with milk intake and does not stop until 8 pm.
Reviews about the profession
“The main feature of working at a cheese factory is still love for one's profession. Most people who try to become a cheese maker have the wrong idea about this profession. If we draw a parallel, the misconception (romantic) about the profession of a cheese maker on the part of the layman is very similar to the misconception of housewives who sometimes love to cook and try to talk about the work of a professional chef in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant.
Evgeny Zolotarev, cheese maker-technologist.
stereotypes, humor
Cheese making is a complex and very responsible craft. In addition to a huge amount of special knowledge, which we will discuss later, a professional must be endowed with remarkable strength in the most physical sense of the word. Even in order to turn the head of cheese, you will need to make a lot of effort. It is no coincidence that there is no feminine name for this profession, because this work is completely unfeminine.
Education
The art of cheese making is passed down from generation to generation. You can learn from scratch only from a specialist in this field, working at a specialized factory.
Evgeny Zolotarev: "A real boom in cheese making broke out just a couple of years ago!"
Cheese technologist Yevgeny Zolotarev spoke about what delicacy and table cheese is, about his activities in "cheese consulting", and the peculiarities of working in a restaurant with a cheese factory.
- Egeny, what is the peculiarity of working at a cheese factory?
The main feature of working at a cheese factory is still love for one's profession. Most people who try to become a cheese maker have the wrong idea about this profession. If we draw a parallel, the misconception (romantic) about the profession of a cheese maker on the part of the layman is very similar to the misconception of housewives who sometimes love to cook and try to talk about the work of a professional chef in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant.
The work of a cheese maker requires a lot of discipline and dedication, and I'm ready to explain why.
For example, if something didn’t work out, then it’s impossible to redo it! Milk can only be disposed of, or you can try to make something simpler out of it, for example, cottage cheese.
Milk is a living product that behaves a little differently each time than it did yesterday. And every day the master cheese maker adjusts his actions according to how the process of making cheese proceeds. In other words, there is no cooking recipe as such, there is an end result, under which it is necessary to adjust all current processes. And every day is a little different from yesterday.
All cheese making processes go one after another, and require the personal participation of a cheese maker. The whole day is literally scheduled by the minute, discipline and jewelry precision are required. At the same time, in small artisan cheese factories, most of the work is manual labor, starting from unloading milk cans of 40-50 liters. There are many types of cheese that are interesting only in manual execution, and when processes are mechanized, they lose their “zest”, become boring and not interesting - they move from the category of “delicacy” to the category of “table cheeses” just to satisfy hunger.
"The main skill of a master cheese maker is to maintain cleanliness: it is necessary to constantly wash and disinfect everything"
At the right cheese dairies, the processes of washing equipment and inventory occur so often and thoroughly that water literally flows on the floor like a river. Usually, a special storm sewer is provided for draining water in the floor - a ladder, where hundreds of liters of water and cleaning solutions are washed off per shift. The volume of water consumed for the needs of the cheese factory can be three times the volume of processed milk.
Cheesemaker is the oldest profession. In Russia, do they cook cheese according to old methods or according to new ones? What equipment is used?
In Russia, cheeses are brewed in different ways, and they have been brewed for a long time. But the real cheese-making boom broke out just a couple of years ago. If we talk about small artisan cheese dairies, then each production has its own preferences and its own secrets. There are cheese dairies that work according to traditional old recipes, there are those that, having studied the experience of producing traditional cheeses, have found and developed their own original recipes that are in no way inferior to foreign recipes. And there are undeservedly forgotten recipes, for example, Russian cheese, which has not been on sale for a long time. And what is presented in retail chains under this name has nothing to do with the traditional recipe corresponding to GOST of the USSR and the technology developed specifically for this cheese within the walls of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Butter and Cheese Making (VNIIMS, Uglich).
There are no problems with the equipment now, there are imported and domestic equipment to choose from, from 25 liters to 3000 liters and even more.
- What can you say about cheese making in general: at what level of development is Russia in this regard?
It is not entirely appropriate to talk about the level of development of cheese factories in Russia and try to compare them with other countries. On the one hand, Russia is only at the beginning of the development of this industry, and compared to other countries traditionally considered the keepers of cheese-making traditions, we are seriously inferior. On the other hand, I often hear from people who travel abroad that interest in hand-made cheese is fading there, and real artisan cheese is becoming more and more difficult to find. And in Russia, on the contrary, now there is a huge interest and a large flow of people who want to master this profession. For example, traditional Italian mozzarella can only be made by the hands of a master cheese maker working with a melted cheese mass at a temperature of 85-87 degrees! What the modern food industry offers us is a cheese similar to mozzarella - there are big differences in the technology and structure of the mozzarella ball itself. And at first glance it seemed that this is a fairly simple cheese. With other cheeses of the Swiss, French, Dutch and other groups, the same is true. The machine cannot replace the hands of the master - it's like trying to compare the result of the work of a good shish kebab and a shish kebab factory. Although, of course, no one has canceled table cheeses, they are certainly needed and the automation of their production makes them more accessible to the consumer.
Tell us a little about yourself - how did you get into this profession, where did you study?
I came into the profession relatively recently, I started working at the opening of the Cheese Factory restaurant in Moscow. It was great and interesting, but when the work went into a measured mode, I realized that I wanted to open a cheese factory. The scale of one small production within the restaurant did not suit me anymore. At the moment, I am working on creating an artisan cheese factory for another cheese restaurant, this is a gourmet cheese paradise, where you can already try cheese with something, something with cheese, and for the most sophisticated - there are dishes without cheese at all.
Next in line, I plan to develop a real village cheese factory, with a full production cycle from a cow to a finished product in the form of original farm cheeses, young and aged. But I will talk about this later, now everything is in the planning stage and the start of construction work on the farm.
At first he studied the cheese business himself at home, made experiments in the country, found something in the literature and the Internet. The received technical education and love for chemistry came in handy. When he made some progress in simple cheeses, he realized that he lacked knowledge, and went to study cheese making in Uglich. There, of course, they didn’t teach me all the secrets of traditional European cheesemaking, but they gave me an excellent base on the physicochemical processes occurring in milk and an understanding of the basic principles of cheesemaking. I was lucky to work with foreign masters who revealed some of their secrets to me. My MBA business education obtained in Moscow and managerial experience at a previous job allows me to organize and create a business for a customer.
"I am engaged in "cheese consulting", but not only on paper, but with the launch of specific projects and the development of their product line"
- What are the features of working in a restaurant with a cheese factory?
There are many features of working in a restaurant with a cheese factory, you can even write a small book about it. If I try to tell briefly, then first of all the most important thing is the selection and training of personnel. This is the most painful topic, it is difficult to find and educate employees who are ready to work 12 hours a day, at the moment we are preparing people for dynamic work with small technological breaks. The lack of space, and the daily changing volume of demand for the product dictate their own production rules. Supplying small-scale production with high-quality milk is also not an easy task. To agree on the supply of 250-300 liters of milk per day is much more difficult than to negotiate on the supply of 2500-3000 liters. Suppliers are practically not interested in small buyers. But the most important thing is people, because the restaurant business is a highly competitive environment, and, accordingly, this is an additional burden on staff compared to ordinary production, higher quality standards and an expensive price for mistakes.
Unified Tariff and Qualification Directory of Works and Occupations of Workers (ETKS). Issue #49
Approved by the Decree of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation of 05.03.2004 N 33
Master Cheesemaker
§ 61. Cheesemaker-master of the 5th category
Job Description. Management of the process of cheese production in the production of cheese up to 300 tons per year in baths (boilers), cheese factories. Accounting for incoming raw materials. Sorting milk by quality and determining its suitability for cheese production based on laboratory analyzes and organoleptics. Calculation of milk normalization by fat and protein content and determination of the required amount of bacterial starter, chemicals, coagulation enzyme. If necessary, the production of bacterial starter. Control over the process of curd and cheese grain processing in baths, cheese vats. Determining the readiness of cheese grain before molding. Control over the process of molding and pressing cheese. Periodic check of the active acidity of cheese by the indicator method. Weighing and transfer of cheese to the salting department. Quality control of washing equipment, molds, inventory. Accounting and reporting. Participation in cheese quality assessment.
Must know: composition and physico-chemical properties of milk and cheese; cheese production technology; possible defects of cheese and methods of their prevention; requirements for the quality of raw materials and cheese used; consumption rates of raw materials and materials used; accounting and reporting rules.
1. Cheesemaker-master of the 5th category belongs to the category of workers.
2. A person who has a secondary vocational education and a year of work experience is accepted for the position of a cheese maker-master of the 5th category.
3. Cheese-maker-master of the 5th category is hired and dismissed by the director of the organization on the proposal of the head of production (section, workshop).
4. Cheesemaker-master of the 5th category must know:
a) special (professional) knowledge of the position:
The device of the serviced equipment;
Consumption rates of raw materials and materials used;
Rules of accounting and reporting;
Requirements for the quality of the oil;
b) general knowledge of the employee of the organization:
Rules and norms of labor protection, safety measures, industrial sanitation and fire protection,
Rules for the use of personal protective equipment;
Requirements for the quality of work (services) performed, for the rational organization of labor in the workplace;
Types of marriage and ways to prevent and eliminate it;
Production alarm.
5. In his activity, the cheese-maker-master of the 5th category is guided by:
RF legislation,
the charter of the organization,
Orders and instructions of the director of the organization,
By this job description,
The internal labor regulations of the organization,
6. Cheesemaker-master of the 5th category reports directly to a worker with a higher qualification, the head of production (section, shop) and the director of the organization.
7. During the absence of a cheese maker-master of the 5th category (business trip, vacation, illness, etc.), his duties are performed by a person appointed by the director of the organization on the proposal of the head of production (section, workshop) in the prescribed manner, who acquires the appropriate rights, duties and is responsible for the performance of the duties assigned to him.
II. Job Responsibilities
The duties of a cheese maker-master of the 5th category are:
a) Special (professional) duties:
Management of the process of cheese production in the production of cheese up to 300 tons per year in baths (boilers), cheese factories.
Accounting for incoming raw materials.
Sorting milk by quality and determining its suitability for cheese production based on laboratory analyzes and organoleptics.
Calculation of milk normalization by fat and protein content and determination of the required amount of bacterial starter, chemicals, coagulation enzyme.
If necessary, the production of bacterial starter.
Control over the process of curd and cheese grain processing in baths, cheese vats.
Determining the readiness of cheese grain before molding.
Control over the process of molding and pressing cheese.
Periodic check of the active acidity of cheese by the indicator method.
Weighing and transfer of cheese to the salting department.
Quality control of washing equipment, molds, inventory.
Accounting and reporting.
Participation in cheese quality assessment.
b) General duties of an employee of the organization:
Compliance with the Internal Labor Regulations and other local regulations of the organization,
Internal rules and norms of labor protection, safety, industrial sanitation and fire protection.
Fulfillment, within the framework of the employment contract, of the orders of the employees with whom it was repaired in accordance with this instruction.
Performing work on the acceptance and delivery of shifts, cleaning and washing, disinfection of serviced equipment and communications, cleaning the workplace, fixtures, tools, as well as keeping them in good condition;
Maintaining established technical documentation
5th category
Characteristics of works. Managing the process of cheese maturation in the production of cheese up to 300 tons per year. Managing the process of salting and storing cheese. Quality control of cheese entering the salting department after pressing. Evaluation of the quality of cheeses. Preparation of a batch of cheeses for shipment, execution of necessary documents. Determination of the loss of cheese during maturation according to current standards. Accounting and reporting.
Must know: composition and physico-chemical properties of milk and cheese; production technology and maturation of various cheeses; possible defects of cheese and methods for their prevention and elimination in the process of production and maturation; requirements for the quality of cheeses; rates of loss of cheese during maturation; accounting and reporting rules.
With the production of cheese over 300 tons per year - the 6th category.
Requires secondary vocational education.
Section 63
4th category
Characteristics of works. Managing the cheese ripening process. Acceptance of cheeses after pressing, checking the quality of pressing. Control over the process of salting cheese, maintaining the necessary technological modes of salting. Management of work on laying, washing, wiping, turning, waxing cheeses, packaging them in a film. Control of ripening in chambers with different temperature and humidity conditions. Regulation of the mode of maturation of cheeses in accordance with the indications of instrumentation. Participation in cheese quality assessment. Management of packing of cheeses in boxes before shipment.
Must know: arrangement of serviced equipment; composition and basic properties of cheese; technology for the production of manufactured cheeses and care for them; possible defects of cheese that occur during its ripening, and methods for their prevention; rates of loss of cheese during maturation; cheese quality requirements.
§ 64. Syrosol
3rd category
Characteristics of works. Conducting the process of salting small rennet cheeses. Acceptance of cheeses after pressing, checking the quality of cheeses. Placement of cheeses in brine tanks, in containers or without containers. Compliance with the technological regimes of salting. Brine preparation, pasteurization, cooling, clarification, maintaining the required temperature, concentration and acidity of the brine, circulating or mixing it, filtering the brine. When salting in brine without containers - placing cheeses in one, two, three rows, covering the surface of the cheese protruding from the brine with a sickle wetted with brine.
Must know: production technology and salting of small cheeses; composition and physico-chemical properties of cheeses; possible defects depending on the quality of salting, methods of their prevention and elimination; brine preparation rules; norms of loss of cheeses during their salting; basics of accounting.
§ 65. Syrosol
4th category
Characteristics of works. Conducting the process of salting large rennet cheeses. Sprinkling with salt the upper sheets of cheese closed with sickle, periodically turning the heads of cheese. Washing certain types of large cheeses with saline, turning them over, laying them on clean circles after salting cheeses in pools and drying them. Salting of cheeses during maturation, brushing for salting. Maintaining the required brine parameters, updating it.
Must know: production technology and salting of large cheeses; composition and physico-chemical properties of cheeses; possible defects of cheese, depending on the quality of its salting and further maturation, methods for their prevention and elimination; requirements for the technological parameters of the brine; norms of loss of cheeses during their salting and ripening; accounting and reporting rules.
