Media Kit

Why Belle Chevre

For almost 20 years Belle Chevre has been hand-crafting fine French style goat’s milk cheeses in rural Alabama. A woman with a grand appetite for Chevre (the French word for goat and pronounced ‘shev) founded Belle Chevre and developed a winning recipe that has, to date, garnered over 50 national awards from American Cheese Society and other famed institutions.

Belle Chevre’s delicious recipe landed Belle Chevre cheeses in some of the finest cheese retailers in the country including The Cheese Shop of Beverly Hills and Dean & Deluca in New York City where a wayward Alabamian, Tasia Malakasis, discovered this product from her home about which she did not yet know.

Tasia, ever passionate about food, fell in love with the product, and came back to Alabama to learn the art of cheesemaking and finally persuaded the owner emeritus to let her be the next generation of Belle Chevre.

“I could not be more excited to highlight a great product that is not only from Alabama but is OF Alabama”, says Malakasis. The uniquely mild but distinctive flavor of our cheeses is directly related to the terrain on which the goats are raised and the cheese is created. Limestone County, Alabama is a big part of what is special about Belle Chevre. The French use a term, terroir, to speak mostly about why wine is so special from a certain region – the soil, the climate, the chemical and alchemical sense of place – and it is the same with Belle Chevre’s cheeses. No other cheese can taste as good!

Steven Jenkins, one of the world’s foremost authorities on cheeses of the world says “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."

All of our cheeses are hand-made and hand-packed with great care and dedication to the craft – and we believe that that makes all the difference in the world.

We hope that you too will become infected with the passion with which this cheese is made and experience, as Tasia and so many others have, love at first bite.

Belle Chevre Awards

We’re proud of our cheese. One look at the long list of kudos we’ve received and you’ll see why.

We’ve garnered nearly 100 national awards and hundreds of honorable mentions.
Our Belle and the Bees Breakfast Cheese was awarded the 2009 Sofi Award for Outstanding New Product.
Our Fig Breakfast Cheese was a 2012 SOFI finalist.
All of our cheeses have won awards from the American Cheese Society and The American Dairy Goat Association.
Steven Jenkins, author of Cheese Primer, declares Belle Chèvre an “American Treasure” and Liz Parnell one of the favored cheese makers in the country.
We’ve received write-ups in internationally known magazines such as Ready Made, Real Simple, The New Yorker, Food & Wine, Food Arts, Culinary Review, Gourmet News, Saveur, Gourmet, Spice and Vogue.

Our name appears in authoritative texts on the subject of cheese, including:

The World Encyclopedia of Cheese by Juliet Harbutt
Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins
Cheese, A Complete Guide To Over 300 Cheeses of Distinction by Julie Harbutt
The New American Cheese by Laura Werlin
Cook’s Kitchen Reference, Cheese, A Comprehensive Guide To Cheeses Of The World by Julie Harbutt
The All-American Cheese & Wine Book by Laura Werlin
Around The Southern Table by Sarah Belk
Goat Cheese by Georgeanne & Ethel Brennan

Belle’s helped us win a ton of awards. But we don’t let all the attention go to her head. Or ours. We’ll always use the same time-tested European farmstead technique to get that mild, yet distinctly flavored cheese for which we’re renowned.

Belle Chevre in the News

Belle Chevre Press Releases

November 5, 2012 :: Award-Winning Cheesemakers Introduce Trio of DIY Goat Cheese Kits

September 21, 2012 :: First-Ever Artisan Goat Cheese Cheesecake Debuts for Retail Nationwide

July 10, 2012 :: Belle Chevre's Tasia Malakasis Launches www.tasiastable.com

May 17, 2012 :: Belle Chevre Fig Breakfast Cheese Named Finalist for Sofi Award

May 14, 2012 :: Renowned Cheesemaker to Host Culinary Trip to Greece

May 17, 2012 :: Belle Chevre Fig Breakfast Cheese Named Finalist for Sofi Award

May 14, 2012 :: Renowned Cheesemaker to Host Culinary Trip to Greece

April 5, 2012 :: Belle Chevre President Tasia Malakasis Invited to Judge Cocktails & Curds Competition

March 31, 2012 :: Belle Chevre Introduces Original Flavor Spreadable Chevre

March 1, 2012 :: Belle Chevre Announces New Mail-Order Cheese of the Month Club

January 25, 2012 :: Belle Chevre Launches A Line of Cookies Frosted with Artisan Goat Cheese

January 13, 2012 :: Belle Chevre Makes Cooking With Healthy Goat Cheese Easy With New E-Book

January 1, 2012 :: Author Tasia Malakasis's Luxe Cooking Classes Return For a Second Season

November 17, 2011 :: Garden and Gun magazine recognizes Belle Chevre in 2011 Made in the South Awards

November 15, 2011 :: Belle Chevre introduces Goat Cheese Cheesecakes

November 1, 2011 :: Belle Chevre announces "Bell is Building" campaign

October 11, 2011 :: KickStarter Launched to raise funds for New Creamery

August 13, 2011 :: Effie's Homemade and Belle Chevre Partnership

August 5, 2011 :: Creamery Tours

June 25, 2011 :: Doe Run Farms and Belle Chevre CSA Box

June 2, 2011 :: Auction to Benefit Tornado Relief and Alabama Creamery

May 16, 2011 :: Project Good: Tornado Relief Partnership with Kroger

March 25, 2011 :: Chef Marvin and Belle Chevre Partnership

January 23, 2011 :: New Year, New Breakfast

About Belle Chevre

Belle Chevre has produced a variety of internationally acclaimed chevres since 1989 using time-tested European farmstead techniques. The company is purposefully small, and each chevre is hand made by its passionate cheese makers. The result is an artisan cheese with a mild and distinct taste and texture that reflects the care with which it was made. Belle Chèvre cheeses have received numerous national awards from the American Cheese Society and the American Dairy Goat Association, and has been featured in many top culinary books and magazines. Declared "American Treasure" by the internationally known authority on cheese, Steven Jenkins, and acclaimed by chefs and cheese lovers the world over, Belle Chèvre is available at upscale retailers including Dean and Deluca and the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills as well as larger outlets like Whole Foods Market.

About Tasia Malakasis

Tasia Malakasis is no stranger to happenstance. After ten years in a career in high-tech marketing software, as the vice president of globalproduct management and marketing for a software company, Tasia decided it was time for a change. She enrolled at the Cuilnary Institute of American in New York, determined to pursue her love for all things food.

One day, visiting a Dean & Deluca store in Manhattan, she picked up a cheese and was stunned to learn that the producer, Belle Chevre, was located in her home state. She was so impressed that she contacted the then-owner and founder, Liz Parnell, and asked her to share her knowledge of cheesemaking. Tasia returned to Alabama to pursue her passion for food, becoming an apprentice cheesemaker at the award-winning Elkmont, Alabama company.

Six months later, with the blessing of her mentor Parnell, Tasia acquired Belle Chevre in 2007.Although making goat cheese may seem worlds away from the fast-paced life of marketing high-tech software, the similarity is in Malakasis’ passion for what she does. Belle Chevre embodies her love of handcrafted, artisan food and the Southern region where it is produced. Now, as owner and president of Belle Chevre, Malakasis provides the strategic vision and leadership required to ensure that the 30-year-old company continues to evolve as one of the country’s most acclaimed artisan creameries.

Since taking the lead at Belle Chevre in 2007, Malakasis has developed several new product lines and revamped the brand with a new graphic identity and marketing program. Malakasis is a member of The American Cheese Society, The American Dairy Goat Association, Southern Foodways Alliance and Slow Food International. She has spoken at conventions nationwide, including the More! Magazine Reinvention Convention. She’s been featured in media outlets such as O! Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Martha Stewart Living Radio, Southern Living, Cooking Light, and more.
Tasia’s Table, her cookbook due out in 2012, marks the culmination of the meals she enjoyed with her Southern grandmother, her Greek family, and hundreds of Sunday Suppers spent around a big table with great food and even better friends.

Contact: Tasia Malakasis, President, Fromagerie Belle Chevre, at 256.423.2238 or via email at tmalakasis@bellechevre.com

Photos

Some high resolution photos available for download:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tmalakasis/BelleChevrePhotos#5296777770861972290
http://picasaweb.google.com/tmalakasis/BelleChevrePhotos#5296777803583465394
http://picasaweb.google.com/tmalakasis/BelleChevrePhotos#5296778648435258082
http://picasaweb.google.com/tmalakasis/BelleChevreWebsite#5385416525319622930

Contact Us

Fromagerie Belle Chevre
26910 Bethel Road
Elkmont, Alabama 35620

phone: 256-423-2238
order toll free: 1-800-735-2238


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