Mondays suck. Especially if you hate your job. But the day doesn’t have to be a total waste. You can look forward to reading about ReadyMakers who have worked their way into f*&%ing awesome jobs—and maybe find a little inspiration to jumpstart your own career in the process.

Tasia Malakasis of Belle Chevre traded a successful career working for technology start-ups for the life of an agricultural entrepreneur in the small town where she grew up—all on the strength of one heavenly bite of cheese. Sound romantic? Read on!

VITAL STATS
Occupation: Cheesemaker
Location: Elkmont, Alabama (where all the good goat cheese is made!)
Age: 39
First Job: Selling Estee Lauder on summer break in college
Best Job: Cheesemaker!!
Greatest Professional Challenge: Balancing integrity of product with growth
Salary During 20s: Cannot remember that long ago!

1. Hi, Tasia Malakasis. How did you get that f*&%ing awesome job?
I always tell everyone when they ask about how I came to be a cheesemaker that I came about it in the "normal way."  I had a successful career with a global tech company heading up product and marketing but after finding Belle Chevre in NYC, and falling in love with it, I quit my job, compelled by destiny, and moved home to work for free to learn the trade. A short time later I convinced the owner to pass the torch to me and with a lot of borrowed money and luck, voila, I was a cheesemaker.

2. What other jobs have you had?
Besides my college sales jobs I built a career with start-up companies.  The atmosphere was always intense and very exciting.

3. How did you get into the cheese biz?
Cooking and food have always been my true passion. All I ever wanted to do was something that would put me in the creative mood that cooking and food always seem to be able to do for me. I just wasn't sure how to do it. Then I found Belle Chevre, which is from my sweet home in Alabama, and knew that was it for me.

4. Tell us a little bit about the area where you live and work?
Elkmont, Alabama is a tiny town that seems about as incongruous as a place can be for making French-style goat cheese. But in reality cheesemaking has always been a provincial and pastoral endeavor—a simple (but ultimately elegant) method that farmers for millennia have used to preserve milk—so the fact that we do what we do it in this "country" place makes perfect sense. And we have some of the best women in the world in Elkmont who take great pride every day in working and playing at Belle Chevre!

5. What is your typical day like?
I get up early and get my six-year-old son feed and ready for school. Then I answer emails from home while getting myself ready (a tough regime of putting hair in a ponytail and donning a Belle Chevre ball cap) and then head to the creamery, where I check on cheesemaking and office stuff, and listen to music with the gals while planning strategy for getting America's best cheese to America's  best customers.

6. How about your idea of a perfect meal?
I have these Sunday Suppers—a modern take on our grandmother's Sunday meal—but with my friends, whether they are coming by after church or just waking up at 1:00. I always do all the cooking and there is normally a good-sized gaggle of children running through the house. I will have food in every corner of the house including setting blankets in the grass for a wonderful casual experience where I get to experiment on new dishes and recipes for a very amenable and happy crowd. These are my favorite occasions for cooking and sharing.

7. I’m curious about how you’ve grown your business. How do you go from making a really great food item, to getting it distributed and sold in stores?
I am curious about how that happens as well. Honestly, I was so in love with this cheese and felt/feel it is the best on the entire planet, which convinced me that selling it would be a very simple equation. There are actually a lot of layers, however, in getting it in stores and education that has to happen along the way. I had no experience whatsoever in marketing and selling a consumer goods item and got into this business purely as a passionate pursuit so I have had to learn a lot along the way. But ultimately if buyers at the grocery level say yes to trying our cheese they fall in love with it too.

8. What advice would you give to someone who wants to do something like what you have done?
I don't believe I have any intrinsic knowledge but I do believe strongly that if one wants to do something then they must go for it without fear and with full conviction. I am nothing if not persistent. That will open all kinds of doors and create opportunities.

 Want more cheese? Take a video tour of the Belle Chevre creamery with Tasia at MyRecipes.com.

[Images courtesy of Tasia Malakasis]

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