Marek Mazurkiewicz in Wroclaw, Poland

Marek is a cheese maker from Poland. He told us about his Youtube channel – www.youtube.com/domowyser. (Domowy ser means homemade cheese.) He was hoping we would let you know about it if we thought it was good.

It turned out we think it is more than good – it’s amazing! And, Marek is one of the most accomplished cheese makers we have ever known. Someday we expect to see him accepting an award at one of the world cheese competitions.

He explained to us that he set up his own channel during the pandemic “to show people that making your own cheese is a great alternative to buying cheese without soul and depth of flavor.”

It features 51 cheese making videos with English subtitles. Most of them are directions for making specific cheeses and a few of them discuss general topic such as Cutting Gouda Cheese and How to Build a Cheese Press.

Check out this short video tour of his caves:

Marek took all the pictures below (except the ones of himself, of course). We think his talent as a photographer is only eclipsed by his talent as a cheese maker.

Marek’s Story

I started working in gastronomy about 10 years ago in Lublin (I’m 30 years old). In the beginning, I was a ‘commis chef,’ then I worked as a cook. After awhile, when the current chef quit, his sous-chef became the chef and I became his sous-chef.

3 years ago my wife and I moved to Wrocław, where we live today.

After moving, I was looking for a job as a chef or sous-chef. I found a job as a chef, but not everything was what I wanted. A friend recommended to me a very interesting place where I am the chef today.

I love to do everything related to food. I am constantly looking for new inspirations related to cooking and food.

I was inspired by cheese a few years ago, but back then I didn’t know it would develop this way. We used to make cottage cheese, creme fraiche in the kitchen, and then it was halloumi time (all to use on the menu).

Later, I had a cheese break when I changed jobs and didn’t even have time to think about making cheese.

Everything changed about 2 years ago when I started working in a restaurant whose owner has a lot of cows. I started to delve into the secrets of cheese making, and your website, Ricki Carroll’s book and Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell came to help me.

There were a lot of mishaps and cheese problems, but the most important thing was to keep going. Now I feel very comfortable with cheese making. I make cheese at home on a day off, but also at work for sale and for cheese boards.

Sometimes, at work, there is no time to make cheese. But, this year, due to the pandemic, restaurants and hotels are closed and you can only get take-out food. In order to survive, we make and sell cheese. Let’s hope that soon everything will return to normal.

My goals:

My biggest goal is to open my own artisan cheese dairy one day. I wish I could live only from this.

My minor goal is to perfect the production of cheeses with holes (Swiss-style cheeses), because with them I have the biggest problem. It’s getting better, but it’s still not what I would expect.

Sometimes, instead of large and round holes I get a lot of small or jagged ones. I know that bigger wheels of cheese = larger holes. Theoretically, I was doing everything right, but apparently I still have to work it out, or try propionic culture from another company (in Poland) where I get it now.

Some time ago, I told myself that I would make every cheese in the world at least once. This goal is possibly more difficult than setting up my own cheese dairy. I know it’s almost impossible because there are several thousand types of cheese in the world, but it’s worth trying;)