Thanks, Brie
Pam and Linuxboy - This is the big thought here exactly. I thoroughly enjoy inventing, developing and improving cheese, but I don't see myself cutting curd as a worker bee for the rest of my life. Since I live in the world's chef capital and I am on an island with not much farming in reasonable distance, my grand concept is to develop cheeses here in the ciity, in a small operation that's just enough to supply initial production and do market tests for new cheese (Call it "citystead"?) - then, license the production to capable facilities. This way, I don't have costs of plant and product liabilities galore; moreover, I can approach producers with cheese that has already been tested and proven viable for production and consumer demand, possibly even with supply orders from restaurants and cheese shops, so the producer/farmer too has little risk. My name, my brand, my standards, my branding and packaging - their production and/or milk. There is the ultimate challenge though: Can one produce commercially viable artisanal cheese in the heart of the city? This hobby is turning into an accidental career...
There are fantastic different milks I can get from regional farmers. There is virtually an unlimited variety of cultures I can obtain. This town has world-class affinage facilities and then there is the feedback that I can get here via the delicate palates of chefs, sommeliers, fromagiers, and international crowd of discerning foodies. I am sure can develop fantastic cheese.
I emailed back and forth with Jos Vulto about a year ago. Super helpful and nice guy. He makes cheese in Brooklyn, however this isn't a certified facility (his basement as I understand). He is in the process of building a creamery in upstate NY but that's already too far from the city for me.
As you can see from the 95 page PDF attachment... a cooling truck may not be enough. about 2/3 of this document doesn't apply to me because I don't milk or pasteurize and the remaining few pages about facility requirements and asking that employees wash hands and cover their head is all pretty normal stuff, nothing outrageous or crazy. Perhaps a commercial kitchen that is NOT in use can be enough as long as I comply with all regulations.
Missy - Unfortunately doing this in the house is legally strictly forbidden due to possible cross contamination issues. Also, I am an apartment dweller and I find it hard to believe that I can crank out a few hundred wheels a month out of my living room. I can barely deal with the 20 I have going right now... Doing it in the restaurant, even if it was legally OK present some other issues: A small hot kitchen with chefs running around spilling food and cutting bread... I don't see how I can make cheese, leave it there and let it drain and turn for 24-48 hours at a time without contaminating it or destroying it with acidity. I am also not clear about where to age them in this arrangement