Belle Chevre Owner Tasia Malakasis Jumping at New Opportunity

More than 20 years ago, Tasia Malakasis rekindled her roots in the cheese section of an upscale purveyor in New York City.

Her surprise at discovering goat cheese — then still a novelty in much of the United States — made in a tiny Alabama town was nothing like the revelation she experienced shortly after.

Malakasis was, at the time, attending the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., to pursue a passion for food. It was misplaced. She discovered at the Culinary Institute she did not want to be a chef, work in a kitchen or follow that route on the food highway.

After 15 successful years in the tech industry in Silicon Valley and Philadelphia, she had dreams of white chef’s jackets and knives, creating exciting food and more. But the Culinary Institute wasn’t all that.

And then everything changed, thanks to the display of Fromagerie Belle Chevre goat cheese she found in a Manhattan Dean & DeLuca.

“Dean & DeLuca was the gourmet place back then,” Malakasis said. “Here I was in New York City, the good ol’ Alabama girl who always wanted to leave Alabama, with cheese made in Elkmont.”

Within the next six years she decided to ditch the successful tech career, her Culinary Institute chef’s dream and make some other life changes including moving to Alabama, a divorce, working six months for free at Belle Chevre and then purchasing the company.

“The one thing about coming home to Alabama is it made me an advocate for what I thought I wanted to leave behind,” Malakasis said. “Alabama was home and is a lot of the beauty of the business for me. Fortune, Forbes, Oprah’s O magazine, Country Living … they were interested in that home story, the revival or reinvention. We even had an event called Southern Reinvention at Belle Chevre with (clothier) Billy Reid of Florence and the Swampers to celebrate the South.

“We wanted to build the business and be able to say with pride, ‘Here is something great for Alabama.’ That was 2007 and now here we are in 2021, and we did that.”

Time for a Change

Now, it’s time for Act III for Malakasis.

She has sold Belle Chevre and is transitioning into a new project, which has not been publicly announced. Malakasis was coy when asked whether it would involve food, but ruled out a restaurant. Her son is going to university in autumn and she jokes that “I’m taking his gap year.” She indicated the project will be related to her Greek-American heritage.

“Food is what makes me happy and that has not changed,” she said. “People who were super important to me many years ago taught me early on in life that food is love. I feel like the next thing might be embracing my Greek culture and bringing that home.

“Maybe it could be a collaboration with food from that beautiful country and introducing it to my home here.”

Malakasis is winding down her time at Belle Chevre, offering some insight to the new owners and slowly moving out personal items. The negotiations and final closing began this year.

She hasn’t been in a big rush to close out this chapter in her life, either. More than two decades between finding Alabama goat cheese in New York City and signing on the dotted line to sell her company can’t be let go by leaving the keys on desk.

Belle Chevre “will continue to grow and thrive, and they’ll continue to do tours and do well,” she said.

Is this her final act?

Doubtful, but Malakasis said she isn’t sure. She is excited about what is coming, though, even if it’s still a bit unknown.

“You know the Point Mallard Olympic pool platform, the three-level platform, over in Decatur?” she says. “I guess the analogy is that for a while I’ve been climbing the ladder to that top platform. Once you reach the top, you don’t go back down to the middle or lower level. You jump, right? You get some new perspective up there and can see new things from that top level.

“It’s scary, but you jump.”