Belle Chevre/ Alabama Magazine/ Cherokee Lair Photography

local flavor ALABAMA MAGAZINE 77

belle
chevre

At this succes sful dairy farm
in North Alabama, owner

Tasia Malakasis prides herself
on creating delectable g oat’s
milk products and sharing the

delights of cheesemaking.

AAs Tasia Malakasis, the owner and president of Belle
Chèvre in Elkmont, talks about her company's well-
earned accolades, she infuses her words with strength
and elegance. Her hands move excitedly with a fluid
grace as if she were conducting a symphony rather
than talking about goat cheese. Belle Chèvre, French
for “beautiful goat,” is the company she has owned
for a decade. Nestled into a gorgeous sleepy town in
the Appalachian foothills, just west of Huntsville and
I-65, this is the kind of place where people come to
visit for a day and end up staying for life.
We are sitting in Malakasis’ office at the Belle Chèvre
creamery, and from my chair I can view two workers

text and photo graphy by cherokee lair

76 January | february 2018

local flavor rolling a fresh press of cheese into an
intoxicating mix of bourbon, mint, and
With two cookbooks and a thriving sugar for her award-winning Southern
busines s under her belt, and onging Belle Montrachet-style goat cheese.The
business has evolved and moved from the
culinary creativity sparking new former dairy farm outside of Elkmont to
recipes and product ideas, Malakasis a small, modern chevre factory and bistro
in the heart of a very small downtown.
is enthusiastic about the future
of Belle Chèvre. Malakasis’ energy and love for food
is infectious, and as much as she loves
and lives in the present, she is enthu-
siastic about the future. Her popular
cookbooks are a dream fulfilled, but she
is constantly working in the kitchen
to perfect new recipes. “Creating more
amazing products with my son, Kelly,
and making Belle Chèvre become a
household name, replacing cream cheese
with Belle Chèvre Breakfast Cheese—
who knows what fun opportunities
beyond that there are?" she says.

Malakasis grew up in Huntsville with
a salt-of-the-earth Alabama mother and
a Greek rocket-scientist father whom she
rarely saw after his move back to Greece.
She loved computers and grew profi-
cient and successful as an IT technician
in the 1990s. It was during a conference
in New York City that she walked into
Dean and DeLuca's and found the per-
fect goat cheese.When she examined the
package, Malakasis discovered that it was
made practically in her own backyard—
and that marked a life-changing epipha-
ny for her.While attending the Culinary
Institute of America in Poughkeepsie,
New York, she discovered that she didn't
want to be a chef, but to make the food
that chefs utilize.“I do this because I love
it; it feeds me and others,” she says.“Food
is, in my mind, above all other things, the
way we love each other.”

ALABAMA MAGAZINE 79

local flavor local flavor

80 January | february 2018 After Malakasis came home, she
interned with Liz Parnell at Belle Chèvre
for six months, learning every aspect of
cheesemaking.They soon became part-
ners, and in 2007 Malakasis became the
sole owner. Running the dairy farm is a
labor of love, but she is first and foremost
a cheesemaker, happily occupied with
making the best goat cheese possible and
educating the public about the different
ways to use it. She has written two suc-
cessful cookbooks and has created a goat
cheese gift box that includes everything
you need to experience Belle Chèvre
cheesemaking in your own home.The
shop incorporates other goat’s milk prod-
ucts as well, including lotions and soaps
made by other small business owners
Malakasis supports.

Belle Chèvre is an artisan factory,
and a tour is the perfect day trip from
Birmingham, Huntsville, or other near-
by cities.The tours are small and short
but full of information from knowl-
edgeable tour leader Dennis Scott about
how the cheese is made and how good
it is for your whole being.There are
goats to pet and a beloved old ornery
chicken that still lays the most beautiful
and delicious pale blue eggs.The tour
ticket includes your choice of a full-
size Belle Chèvre spread. In the tasting
room, try the five-cheese sandwich or
the veal bologna, or create your own
cheese plate and finish it off with one of
the delicious Belle Chèvre ice creams.
Once you’ve indulged to your heart’s
content, you might take advantage of
the adjacent running, biking, and horse
trail that is perfect for walking off the
delicious creamery offerings.