Hey, it's Francis. You are about to get into a strange and beautiful world, the world of cheese.

Not just cheese, but cheese people. People who will answer every question on cheese, who will

teach us how to look and smell and see cheese the way they do, and people who will battle each

other over their mastery and love of cheese. This is an episode from a couple years ago.

It was one of my favorite episodes to make,

and we're psyched to bring it back to you.

It ain't easy being cheesy, y'all.

Have a listen.

I'm Frances Lamb, and this is the splendid table from APM,

the show for curious cooks and eaters.

Okay, so it's bedtime.

Your teeth are brushed, your jammies are on,

and you're saying a little prayer of thanks for your favorite thing in the universe,

cheese.

So you send one up for all the cows of the world,

and then you remember the goats and the sheep, so they get one too.

Then the farmers, goat herders and shepherds, and then the cheesemakers, and one more

prayer for the aphineurs and the cave masters.

And then you drift off to sleep, but you forgot one person.

And maybe the most important one of all.

The cheese monger.

Because what good is the greatest cheese in the world if you don't know about it? It's okay, I guess, because cheesemongers are kind of used to getting no love. You know, people think they just stand there behind the counter and, I don't know, play with plastic wrap all day. But there is art and science and wildly precise skill to what they do.

...