Belle Chevre facts for kids
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.
Recognition and awards
Belle Chevre has produced six different cheese types that have been honored by the American Cheese Society. 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. 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." 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."
