Rachel Dutton
March 11, 2025 7:00 PM

Tickets available at the door $20 (doors open at 6:30PM)

Join us for a deliciously engaging conversation with Rachel Dutton, a microbiologist studying the microorganisms that live on cheese to create a model system for complex microbial interactions - research that has implications for both our health and food systems. Dutton will be joined by Juliana Uruburu, head cheesemonger from Market Hall to discuss the fermentation process, with cheese samples from local cheesemakers Nicasio Creamery and Point Reyes Farmstead.

Rachel Dutton is an American microbiologist and currently a Science Resident at the Astera Institute, where she is exploring the intersections of fermented foods, health, and open science. She has developed the microorganisms that live on cheese into a model system for complex interacting microbial communities.

She has worked with chefs including Dan Felder, head of research and development at Momofuku to develop new fermentation procedures to be used in food and has been called the "go-to microbiologist" for chefs and gastronomists.

Dutton collaborates widely with chefs and cheesemakers, and has appeared in the Netflix documentary Cooked, the PBS documentary series The Mind of a Chef, and on the podcasts Science Friday and Meet the Microbiologist.

This program is part of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center 15th Anniversary Art & Science of Food Series sponsored by the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation and supported in part by Orchard Nursery and Friends of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center.

Rachel Dutton

By Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation

Rachel Dutton

Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation