Cheese is a lot older than some of the smelly varieties you find on the shelves at your local supermarket. Cheese-making is an ancient art that began well before recorded history. No one is quite sure who first made cheese, but it is commonly accepted that civilizations in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia had started making cheese sometime between 8000BC and 3000BC.

Since then cheese-making has spread throughout the globe with some 18 million metric tons of cheese being produced worldwide in 2004.

The South African Cheese Festival is the premier event in our cheese industry and attracts thousands of visitors each year. The success of this festival, together with the fact that no fridge in this country is complete without the mandatory block of cheddar or mozzarella, indicates that cheese is a food that South Africans really love.

But how many of us know anything about cheese beyond the mass produced cheddars, mozzarellas and fetas we find at our local food store? And, unlike the Greeks, French and Italians who consume over 20kgs of cheese per capita every year, do South Africans know how to make there own cheese at home using basic kitchen utensils?

Getsmarter, a local training organisation, together with Miki Ciman, an internationally renowned Italian cheese-maker and owner/chef at the popular La Masseria restaurant in Durbanville, are offering a two-day short course in Home Cheese-Making on the 8th and 9th of November at the Giggling Gourmet Cookery School in Cape Town.

This highly practical course will teach students how to make their own cheese using the most basic of kitchen utensils and, with Miki Ciman as the instructor, will undoubtedly prove to be an authentic Italian experience.

The course is both theoretical and practical with students making seven of their own cheeses and being exposed to international cheese-making expertise during the two days.

For more information please contact Candice on +27 21 683 3633 or at candice@getsmarter.co.za. Getsmarter is a training organisation that works together with South Africa's top universities and industry experts to deliver first-class education to South Africans.