One way to characterize fermented foods is based on where the fermentation microbes come from: either spontaneously acquired from the environment (also known as wild fermentation), from a previous ferment (back-slopping), or from a commercial starter community. But how do we identify which microbes are involved in this process in the first place? Paul Cotter, an Adjunct Professor at University College Cork and Head of Food Biosciences, as well as a Senior Principal Research Officer at Teagasc Food Research Centre, has spent his career addressing this question through tool development, collaborating with a global team of scientists, and exploring the diversity of the fermented food landscape. Join our conversation on mapping fermented food metagenomes, personalized fermented foods, and lab kefir.