Hands-on cheesemaking with Sonoma-born, MFK Fisher-mentored cheesemaker Sheana Davis.
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Visit WebsiteThe Saturday morning Creme de Ricotta class — hands-on milk-to-cheese transformation under MFK Fisher and Ig Vella's mentee, the wheel of cheese you take home, and the cultural depth of a Sonoma food lineage that goes back generations.
The Epicurean Connection has run hands-on cheesemaking classes from its Sonoma headquarters since 1992, founded by Sheana Davis — a Sonoma-born cheesemaker who was personally mentored by MFK Fisher (the renowned American food writer) and Ig Vella (the second-generation owner of the legendary Vella Cheese Company). Davis is a working award-winning cheesemaker whose own Creme de Ricotta has won regional cheese competitions, and she has served as the curator of MFK Fisher's Last House since 2016 — a stewardship of the writer's Glen Ellen home that comes with editorial weight in the Sonoma food community.
Classes run Thursday through Saturday in small groups of up to twelve — every guest makes their own 2-3 pound wheel of Creme de Ricotta in the wheel mold provided, watching milk transform into curds and finished cheese under Sheana's instruction. The class includes the science of cheesemaking, the cultural history of California artisan cheese, and a tasting flight of Sheana's other production cheeses. The Epicurean Connection format is intentionally personal: this is not a chain cooking school or a hotel concierge add-on; it is a small business where the founder teaches every class. Returning students who came as kids and now bring their own children. The MFK Fisher connection is the cultural depth that distinguishes Sheana's classes from anywhere else in California.
Sheana Davis is an award-winning cheesemaker, chef, and culinary educator, born in Sonoma in 1969 and raised in its food culture. She learned to cook from her grandfather, a chef at the Sonoma Grange, apprenticed under the renowned food writer M.F.K. Fisher as a teenager, and was drawn into cheese by Ig Vella of the Vella Cheese Company. After studying at Santa Rosa Junior College, she founded The Epicurean Connection in 1992 — first as a marketing firm for makers like Straus Family Creamery and Cowgirl Creamery — and went on to create the acclaimed Délice de la Vallée triple-cream cheese and author the book Buttermonger. In 2017 she volunteered to help re-create and preserve M.F.K. Fisher's Last House in Glen Ellen.
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The Epicurean Connection has run hands-on cheesemaking classes from its Sonoma headquarters since 1992, founded by Sheana Davis — a Sonoma-born cheesemaker who was personally mentored by MFK Fisher (the renowned American food writer) and Ig Vella (the second-generation owner of the legendary Vella Cheese Company). Davis is a working award-winning cheesemaker whose own Creme de Ricotta has won regional cheese competitions, and she has served as the curator of MFK Fisher's Last House since 2016 — a stewardship of the writer's Glen Ellen home that comes with editorial weight in the Sonoma food community.
Classes run Thursday through Saturday in small groups of up to twelve — every guest makes their own 2-3 pound wheel of Creme de Ricotta in the wheel mold provided, watching milk transform into curds and finished cheese under Sheana's instruction. The class includes the science of cheesemaking, the cultural history of California artisan cheese, and a tasting flight of Sheana's other production cheeses. The Epicurean Connection format is intentionally personal: this is not a chain cooking school or a hotel concierge add-on; it is a small business where the founder teaches every class. Returning students who came as kids and now bring their own children. The MFK Fisher connection is the cultural depth that distinguishes Sheana's classes from anywhere else in California.
The Saturday morning Creme de Ricotta class — hands-on milk-to-cheese transformation under MFK Fisher and Ig Vella's mentee, the wheel of cheese you take home, and the cultural depth of a Sonoma food lineage that goes back generations.
Sheana Davis is an award-winning cheesemaker, chef, and culinary educator, born in Sonoma in 1969 and raised in its food culture. She learned to cook from her grandfather, a chef at the Sonoma Grange, apprenticed under the renowned food writer M.F.K. Fisher as a teenager, and was drawn into cheese by Ig Vella of the Vella Cheese Company. After studying at Santa Rosa Junior College, she founded The Epicurean Connection in 1992 — first as a marketing firm for makers like Straus Family Creamery and Cowgirl Creamery — and went on to create the acclaimed Délice de la Vallée triple-cream cheese and author the book Buttermonger. In 2017 she volunteered to help re-create and preserve M.F.K. Fisher's Last House in Glen Ellen.
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