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Angelo's Pizzeria
South PhillyCheesesteaks with Eagles star Cooper DeJean and Cooper Sharp, Philly's own melty American cheese, made here since 1918.
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×Who's laughing now?
Cheese in the Americas has been something of a joke to the rest of the world… until last year, when American Emilia D'Albero was crowned the world's best cheesemonger. In American Cheese, Emilia hits the road with fiancé and fellow champion Tommy Amorim to show the world that cheesemakers from this hemisphere mean business.
What we'd make, and who it follows.
First American to win the Mondial du Fromage.
“Americans have traditionally been the underdogs in the international cheese community.”
Emilia, on NPR's All Things Considered
Beat Emilia by four points the year they met. Now he's marrying her.
Two coffee obsessives bet a cheesesteak town on serious coffee.
A shuttered Kraft plant in upstate New York, reborn as Chobani.
Two American mongers win over Europe's judges.
Farmers, milkers, haulers and plant crews, on screen as themselves.
4:30 AMThe milkerFirst milking of the day. Holidays included.
7:00 AMThe haulerFarm to plant, one tanker at a time.
11:00 AMThe farmerFeed, weather, the next generation.
3:00 PMThe plant crewMilk becomes yogurt and cheese.
MidnightThe affineurTurning wheels in the dark.Smart, not precious. Funny, not a joke. Beautiful, without losing the people.
Eight sample episodes, Oaxaca to Quebec. Tap one to read it.
The Italian Market, a 4 a.m. Lancaster County milk run, and Lancaster City, nicknamed America's refugee capital.
Cheesesteaks with Cooper DeJean. A cheese vending machine in Kensington, Philadelphia. Stone caves in Chester County. Then a Michelin-starred dinner, with a cheese course from the city's most inventive maker.
Cheesesteaks with Eagles star Cooper DeJean and Cooper Sharp, Philly's own melty American cheese, made here since 1918.
Israeli-born Yoav Perry makes cheese in a shipping container and sells it 24/7 from Philly's first cheese vending machine. Kensington is more than its headlines.
Wild flavors, long lines, zero pretension. Low brow, done perfectly.
St. Malachi, aged in stone caves, tied for second Best of Show at the 2016 American Cheese Society awards.
A dairy since 1981 and a World Cheese Awards silver medalist. Emilia and Tommy join Sue Miller and her family for a happy hour and picnic on the farm, with neighbors and produce from nearby farms.
Where Chobani is breaking ground: the future of Pennsylvania dairy, in person.
Canelés from Market Day Canelé, a stop at the Birchrun Hills stand, and a bottle of wine for the dinner ahead.
Dinner with pastry chef Abigail at one of Philadelphia's first Michelin-starred restaurants: a cheese course built on Yoav's Madcap, and a cheesecake made with it.
Emilia and Tommy start at Angelo's with Cooper DeJean, arguing over cheesesteaks, accessible food and the best version of the melty American cheese everyone loves. Bellies full, they head to Perrystead Dairy in Kensington, a neighborhood long known for crime and the opioid crisis, and home to remarkable families and businesses. Then out to Chester County: The Farm at Doe Run and Birchrun Hills Farm, makers winning international recognition. A stop at 1-900-Ice-Cream, a look at the ground Chobani is breaking in the Lehigh Valley, and a run through Headhouse Farmers Market for canelés, wine and cider. It ends at Provenance, sharing a meal with Abigail and Yoav. They take notes the whole way.
This isn't a PR stunt or a moment made for TV. Emilia and Tommy spend their year on the road, at cheese festivals, competitions and fancy food shows around the world. Now they're bringing an audience along for the ride.
Why it works for Chobani.
Emilia and Tommy are respected names across the specialty cheese world, at home and abroad, including markets where Chobani isn't on shelves yet. Sponsor the show, and they represent Chobani everywhere they go.
“Dairy farms are the backbone of the communities we call home.”
Hamdi Ulukaya, launching Milk Matters, 2019
Brandon designed every episode with La Colombe's leadership and sales team, around three questions:
American Cheese works the same way, with Chobani at the table.
Emilia holds the world title until the next Mondial du Fromage.
Chobani's first Pennsylvania plant. Production starts in 2027.
Our team's series have aired on National Geographic, Disney+, Travel Channel, Food Network and FOX, filmed in 45+ countries. These are the rooms we'd take American Cheese into.
Founding content + commerce partnerThis money makes Season One of American Cheese: eight episodes across North America with Emilia + Tommy. Chobani backs the underdogs early and leads the story of American dairy.
Season one: North America. Then Italy, Switzerland, Australia. Emilia + Tommy become the franchise.
Respected in Europe. In love with cheese made right here.
Emilia was the kid who wrote about cheese in middle school when the assignment was to write about something she was thankful for. After college she joined Eataly in New York, running culinary events and education before moving behind the cheese counter. She entered her first Cheesemonger Invitational in 2018 and kept coming back. In 2021 she won the virtual CMI and took second at the in-person event, four points behind the man she'd go on to marry. In March 2025 she won CMI Masters, the title of America's best cheesemonger, and a seat on the first all-female Team USA.
After nearly a year of two-hour daily practice in tasting, cutting, plating and flashcards, she went to Tours, France, for the Mondial du Fromage in September 2025. Across nine challenges scored on a 200-point rubric, she beat 17 competitors from 14 countries and became the first American ever named the world's best cheesemonger. Her teammate Courtney Johnson took bronze, so two Americans stood on that podium together for the first time. Emilia now runs national sales and marketing for Formaticum, posts as @punkrockparmigiano, and makes a point of being the mentor she wanted when she was starting out. Her message is simple: good cheese belongs at every table, not just the fancy ones.
“Americans have traditionally been the underdogs in the international cheese community.”
Emilia D'Albero, NPR's All Things Considered
Cheese runs in Tommy's family. His grandfather, Giuseppe Abbruzzo, worked as a cheesemonger for 62 years, and since 2008 Tommy has followed him behind the counter. He studied English with a minor in poetry and worked in IT before he chose cheese. The moment it clicked was a taste of Constant Bliss, a soft cheese from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. He's been a lifer ever since, because of an American cheese. In 2021 he won the Cheesemonger Invitational at the Brooklyn Expo Center, the first Di Bruno Bros. monger ever to take the title, and edged out Emilia by four points the year they met.
Today he's Category Manager for Procurement and Education at Di Bruno Bros., Philadelphia's landmark Italian Market cheese shop. He chooses what goes in the case, runs after-hours events and trains the next generation of mongers. Culture magazine put him on its 2025 Hot List. He was part of Team USA's support crew for Emilia's Mondial win, and he's already been developing a cheese-pairing interview show of his own. He tells stories with flavor, and right now he's raving about Coppinger, an ash-lined washed-rind cheese from Sequatchie Cove Creamery in Tennessee. His goal is to give great small makers a bigger audience, and that happens to be this show's mission too.
“Her dedication to education and the industry challenges me to be a better cheesemonger.”
Tommy Amorim on Emilia, Culture 2025 Hot List
They walked in as outsiders and won a world title in France, after years of competition and travel through France, Italy and Switzerland. When they say an American cheese is world-class, the gatekeepers have to listen.
Tommy's turning point was a Vermont cheese. His current favorite is from Tennessee. Emilia calls American mongers the underdogs. Their own story is the case for the series.
Both are Certified Cheese Professionals who train mongers for a living, and both believe cheese is for everyone and every meal. They can go deep with a fifth-generation farmer and still keep a festival crowd laughing.
