About Heather

Heather Westenhofer began making cheese with Rikki Carroll’s 30-Minute Mozzarella Kit in 2005. Since then, she has embarked on a lifelong love affair with cheesemaking. She regularly produces soft cheeses at home, such as mozzarella and fromage blanc, and experiments with aged cheeses as well. Heather is the winner of Best in Show for her mozzarella in the Orange County Fair “Say Cheese” Fair Theme Competition in 2008. She especially enjoys creating mold-ripened cheeses such as camembert and hopes one day to make goat cheeses with milk from her own herd.

Heather has visited home cheesemakers all over the country in order to hone her cheesemaking skills. Her training includes courses with New England Cheesemaking Supply in Massachusetts, Quillisascut Farm in Washington, and “The Cheesemaker” Steve Shapson in Wisconsin. She has taught cheesemaking for organizations such as Slow Food Orange County, the Orange County Herb Society, Eat Real Festival Los Angeles and the Green Party of Orange County, as well as at Whole Foods Market, the Chestnut Street Inn in Sheffield, Illinois and in many private homes. Many of Heather’s current classes are held at the Dragonfly Shops and Gardens in Orange, CA.

What Heather enjoys most about cheesemaking is sharing the process with others.  Cheesemaking is not a secret process known only to select initiates but something many people all over the world did and still do at home every day. She hopes that every one of her students makes cheesemaking part of their kitchen repertoire once they discover how quick and economical it is to make soft cheese at home.

Heather holds a BA in Theatre and Religion from Chapman University and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University.   When not making cheese, she works as the Assistant to the Dean of the College of Performing Arts at Chapman University and serves as the Chair of Slow Food Orange County.