Professional Cheese Flipper?
How does this sound for a unique full-time nutrition-related job? You live in the Italian Alps, and have to hike halfway up a mountain each day to get to work. Your full-time job is to flip and brine 2,000 wheels of cheese so they can get the prized Fontina stamp at the end of the summer.
Happy 2-Tips Tuesday!
Here are two ideas to consider this week.
By Jennifer Broxterman, RD
1. Professional Cheese Flipper?
How does this sound for a unique full-time nutrition-related job? {perfect for introverts!}
You live in the Aosta Valley region of the Italian Alps, and have to hike halfway up a mountain each day to get to work. You clock in and start flipping 2,000 wheels of Fontina cheese, each weighing 8 kg (17.6 lb).
Each cheese wheel must be carefully inspected daily and lightly scrubbed in brine using a special bristled brush resembling a toothbrush. A cool alpine waterfall made of icy glacier water keeps the cheese cellar a crisp 10 °C (50 °F) while you work.
This is a solo job… just peace and quiet caring for the wheels of Fontina cheese as it ages.
Your only and most important job is to ensure that the prized Fontina cheese, made with the milk of Alpine cows who graze on the tall grass and wildflowers on a nearby mountain meadow, is aged perfectly so it can get the prized “FONTINA” stamp when the official cheese inspector comes to the farm at the end of summer.
That’s important cheese job # 2. The official Fontina cheese inspector.
The Fontina cheese inspector is in charge of:
🧀 carefully inspecting each wheel of cheese
🧀 weighing it
🧀 measuring its circumference
🧀 tapping it to hear the sound it makes
🧀 smelling it
🧀 and ensuring that the cheese is absolutely perfect
... before putting the blue FONTINA stamp on the outer rind of the cheese wheel, where it can now be sold at €120 a pop.
So now that you know how Fontina cheese is made, I’m curious and have just one question for you:
If a full-time Fontina cheese flipping job posting came up, would you take it?
You’d have to be ok smelling like strong cheese and working alone, but seriously, could you do this for work?
2. Slow Food Movement
In case you’re wondering how I got on this tangent of how Fontina cheese is made, it’s because my husband Dave and I just spent a week hiking the Alps in northern Italy, celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary.
Pinch me, it was a special trip together.
Breathtaking views.
Crisp and clean mountain air that smelled of pine.
Locals who shared passionately what went into their homegrown food and wine making traditions, and why slowing down to taste and enjoy our food was as equally important as the quality of ingredients used.
And as our cheese cellar guide wrapped up the lesson, he begged me to share this one important point when I told him that I’m a Registered Dietitian and nutrition coach.
“Bella, please tell your nutrition clients to SLOW DOWN. It’s so very important when it comes to staying healthy. If you remember only one thing, it’s to slow down.”
So, I’m not sure if you needed to hear that today, but that’s the message the nice cheese man in Italy asked me to share with all of my friends back home.
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www.prospernutritioncoaching.com/blog/cheese-flipper
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Jen
Jen Broxterman
Registered Dietitian
Prosper Nutrition Coaching
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Jennifer Broxterman, MSc, RD
REGISTERED DIETITIAN & SPORTS NUTRITIONIST
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