With a smile enveloped by steam rising from a pot of milk simmering on a stove, Yulia Bachurinskaya reminisces about the moment she fell "deeply in love" with cheese.

The Belarusian cheesemaker traces the start of this love affair back to trips to Italy as a child in the mid-1990s.

The tours were organised by a nonprofit organisation helping Belarusian children like her who grew up in the zone contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

"The farmers made ricotta the old-fashioned way," she said of the experience that prompted her to learn both Italian and the art of traditional cheese making.

And then in central France's Auvergne -- home to some of the nation's most beloved cheeses such as Saint-Nectaire, Cantal and Fourme d'Ambert -- she discovered the "obligatory plate of cheese enjoyed after each meal".

These experiences set Bachurinskaya, alongside her husband, on a lifelong journey dedicated to making cheese, both before and after fleeing political repression in Belarus and resettling in Poland.

"We can't see our parents, or........

© International Business Times