The Big Cheese: A Filmmaker's Cheese Journey
The Big Cheese film poster
“This is a film about what it takes to be the best cheesemonger in the world. And it’s a film about this guy.” Such begins the introduction to “The Big Cheese,” a documentary released in late 2025 that has enjoyed critical darling status in film festivals and independent movie theaters, garnering media attention from the likes of The New York Times and The Today Show, and that will be released on several streaming platforms September 1. In a year of mixed headlines concerning the volatility of the cheese industry, it’s safe to say that the attention and enthusiasm surrounding “The Big Cheese” has been a notable bright spot for curd fans everywhere.
The Big Cheese
Filming Mondial Fromage 2023
The film follows a team of American cheesemongers who take on the world's top cheese talent at the Mondial du Fromage, an international cheese competition in France, in pursuit of the ultimate prize: respect from their international peers and bragging rights. The leader of the team, Adam Jay Moskowitz is the “this guy” of the film; “The Big Cheese’s” Big Cheese, if you will. Between his businesses Larkin Cold Storage and Maker to Monger, the founding of the Cheesemonger Invitational and CMI Masters, his advocacy and awareness-raising about addiction and mental health issues, and his recent talkshow/podcast “A Cheese Course,” he already looms large in the American cheese community, perhaps larger than anybody who isn’t actually a cheesemaker does. Given his move into media with “A Cheese Course,” with aspirations for bringing attention to cheesemongers and artisanal cheese to the broadest possible audience, you would be forgiven, then, for assuming that he was the force behind the documentary being made to begin with, as I did.
Filmmaker and director Sara Joe Wolansky
He was not, however. That credit goes to filmmaker and director Sara Joe Wolansky, the film’s other Big Cheese. Previously a senior video producer for The New Yorker, she left to pursue longer-form storytelling, and cheese was on her hit list. “I have always just truly loved cheese,” she says, “and I knew I wanted to make a story in the world of cheese.” Along the way, the making of the film didn't just feed her hunger for cheese but transformed her identity as a cheese insider.
Conceiving “The Big Cheese”
For Wolansky, “cheese” was simply a broad topic, and what she needed to find was a story worth telling within that realm.
“I was talking to people in the cheese world, and I was reading articles, and I learned about Adam and what he was doing with the Cheesemonger Invitational,” Wolansky recalls, “and I had also come across a previous article talking about him bringing a group of cheesemongers to France to compete at the Mondial du Fromage. So, I basically just cold reached out to Adam saying, ‘hey, I'm a filmmaker. Would love to learn more.’”
One can easily imagine how well that invitation must have gone over for someone whose stated life’s mission is to shine a spotlight on cheese and cheesemongers. And who isn’t shy — to put it mildly — about being in front of a camera or microphone, or being on stage wearing a cow costume as “Mr. Moo,” inviting people to “mooditate,” or whipping up the crowd to join him in a chorus of “moo, baa, maa.”
“Basically the second I met him it was kind of like this light bulb moment,” says Wolansky. “He's such a character and has such an energy to him, and of course his personal story is also really inspiring.”
As she shifted into doing some of the pre-production interviews for the film, during the CMI Masters event in early 2023, her interest in the topic doubled down. “Just learning about all the cheesemongers competing, I was even more interested in doing the project because I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, every single person here has this amazing story of how they got into cheese, and is doing all this incredible work professionally.’”
A Brief Introduction to “The Big Cheese”
Fabien Degoulier and Adam Moskowitz with Courtney Johnson
The finished doc focuses on Moskowitz and his personal and professional journey, but also on Courtney Johnson of Seattle’s Street Cheese and Sam Rollins of Cow Bell Fine Cheese in Portland, Oregon, as they prepare for and then compete in the 2023 Mondial, plus former Mondial competitor Lillith Spencer of Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm, who joins as a coach for the 2023 team. The climax of the film shows Rollins taking second place, the highest placement for an American cheesemonger since the biennial competition began in 2013.
An epilogue also shows Johnson’s third place finish, and Emilia D’Albero’s win at the 2025 Mondial, though the film did not rely on this gold medal finish to deliver on its redemption arc. “It just so happened that our first festival premiere was going to be in November 2025, and I knew that the team was going back to Mondial in September,” Wolansky says. The original ending of the film was designed to be evergreen, and not dependent on future updates, but, “given that they were going back right before the film was going to actually premiere, I thought, ‘we really should send a camera crew just in case something happens.’”
A Cheese Education
Spending what amounted to a couple of years in the cheese realm provided Wolansky with a cheese education. “I came into this as a cheese enthusiast, but I wasn't especially knowledgeable or anything,” she says. “I think one of the most interesting things I learned over the process of making this documentary is more insight into the cheesemaking process.” She also reports that it has resulted in greater familiarity with a variety of cheeses and increased confidence when facing a cheese case. “A lot of the cheeses now have more memories attached to them for me.”
One of the most impactful insights, though, wasn’t about the cheese itself, but about the people who inhabit this world. Having attended numerous iterations of the Cheesemonger Invitational, plus CMI Masters and Mondial du Fromage, “it really felt like, even though it was a competition, people aren’t really competing against each other,” Wolansky says. “It really kind of felt like everyone was just on ‘Team Cheese’ and was just very happy to see cheese succeed.”
On Becoming Part of Team Cheese
The Big Cheese filmmaker Sara Joe Wolansky
“Part of what's fun about being a doc filmmaker is having the opportunity to kind of really deep dive into these worlds, to really immerse yourself in cheese, and in cheese people,” says Wolansky.
As often seems to be the case with cheese people, Wolanksy is humble about whether or not she feels she is actually now a cheese person. “I feel like it'd be more a question for the cheese community of whether they consider me one of them,” she says, “But I'd like to think so. I'm definitely very invested in cheese.” She also suspects she was recognized by cheesemongers at BKLYN Larder right after the film came out, resulting in a surreal moment of feeling like a “cheese celebrity.”
Since the film she’s also had an experience that most people can relate to, when one starts becoming enthusiastic and knowledgeable about cheese. “I think I’m gonna have to bring cheese to every family gathering from now until eternity,” she says. “I am the cheese lady now among family and friends, and people are always like, ‘Oh man, I just brought this block cheddar, I'm sorry,’ and I'm like, ‘no, it's okay. That's good too.’”
On a final, even more relatable note, Wolansky reflects on her original impulse to bring “The Big Cheese” to life. “I just want to sit around and eat cheese all day,” she says. “Honestly, that's why I wanted to make a film about cheese. I thought, ‘how can I make this happen for myself professionally with the skills I have?’”