Belle Chevre

A The Greek Kiss, a grape-leaf wrapped disc of Belle Chevre.

Belle Chevre is an artisanal goat cheese maker in rural Alabama. It was established in 1986 and is located in Limestone County, Alabama near Elkmont.

Company history

Belle Chevre was founded by Leone Jones Asbury, who later partnered with, then sold her share of the endeavor to, Liz Parnell. Current president, Tasia Malakasis, acquired the company from Liz Parnell in 2007. Belle Chevre opened their first cheese shop & tasting room in downtown Elkmont, AL in April 2013. Another cheese shop and tasting room was opened in downtown Huntsville, AL in May 2014.

Product line

Belle Chevre's product line includes classic goat cheese and fromage blanc, as well as a quartet of sweet breakfast cheeses (fig, honey, cinnamon, and coffee), grape leaf-wrapped chevre, pimento chevre, olive oil-marinated chevre with herbs and sun-dried tomatoes, and cranberry and walnut topped goat cheese.[1]

Recognition and awards

President Tasia Malakasis outside of the Elkmont, AL creamery.

Belle Chevre has produced six different cheese types that have been honored by the American Cheese Society.[2] The cheese was selected by a James Beard Award winning chef as a runner up for Garden & Gun magazine's 2011 Made in the South award.[3] They were voted a Taste Test Award Winner by Cooking Light magazine in 2010, which declares the cheese "has earned the kind of cult status that puts small artisans on the map."[4] Steven Jenkins, one of the world’s foremost authorities on cheeses of the world, said “Alabama's FBC cheeses and fromage blanc taste as fine as the best of the Loire Valley, Perigord and Provence, and that's a mouthful."[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Southern Belle Archived November 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.; ] Sep/Oct issue of Alabama magazine.
  2. ↑ Marti Buckley Kilpatrick Down-home Blue-Ribbon Cheese Who knew?; Belle Chèvre creamery near Elkmont produces fine goat cheese] February 2008 issue of Alabama Living: People & Places (a section of Southern Living)
  3. ↑ Elkmont creamery recognized in Garden & Gun magazine November 17, 2011 Deborah Storey, AL.com
  4. ↑ Cindy Hatcher 2010 Taste Test Awards; Best of the Rest: Alabama] October 2010 issue of Cooking Light.
  5. ↑ Jenkins, Steven (1996). Cheese Primer. Workman Publishing Company. pp. 64, 65. ISBN 978-0-89480-762-6.
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