The Man and I have been together forty-two years and during that time, The Man and I left the US borders three times. All three times, we remained in the North America. The Man believes that American Citizens are targets oversees and having a family member taken hostage in the late 1990s in Central America, only increased this paranoia… As a result, we traveled throughout the US (visiting forty-three) but never considered traveling overseas; it just wasn’t in the cards. (In 1970, I had gone around the world and I had been to a lot of countries; however France was not one of them – England, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, India, Thailand, Japan). Visiting Paris was never on my radar until I was mongering at Fred Meyer, a division of Kroger.
In early 2011, one of the French Cheese Importers sponsored a three-month contest for five Cheesemongers from Kroger’s Seventeen Divisions to win a one-week trip to France, specifically Paris. For three months, we promoted French cheeses; decorating our cheese shops to resemble Parisian Fromageries. I re-created a Parisian street to resemble Rue Cler, complete with a flower shop, a boulangerie, a bistro, signs on the floor with arrows pointing “to Paris” and display that included French-made foods gathered from other departments in the store… and out sold every other Fred Meyer cheese shop by a mile and won for the Fred Meyer… and then I got screwed…
(During the contest Fred Meyer’s Deli-Bakery VP approached me regarding the upcoming Murray’s Cheese Specialist position. I was thrilled, but the first question I asked was “Can I still win the French Cheese contest?” His reply was, “Of course, the new position would not impact you if you win the contest”. Turned out that was a crock.)
I had just started my Murray’s Set-up Specialist position and was training in Dallas the week Kroger announced the five cheesemongers who would be going to Paris. I was on pins and needles waiting for the five names to be chosen. My direct supervisor at FM called me and told me that the FM Cheesemonger had been chosen but it wouldn’t be me. She claimed the Murray’s Cheese VP, who oversaw the Kroger program, refused to allow me to go to Paris insisting I was needed in Denver training new MC cheesemongers at King Soopers. I was devastated and pissed… I have to admit, I’m still pissed… I hold grudges… always have… always will.
As a “consolation” prize, she told me that GFI had invited me to go to Slow Food in Bra, Italy and work the American Pavilion. A terrific opportunity but it was “working”, not playing… she also told me that the Kroger Cheese Category Manager promised a second trip that would be “fun”… of course, that never happened. (Don’t get me wrong, I loved “Cheese” and did get to explore the region one day – I loved it; but it was not the same as spending a week in Paris.)
Recently another Murray’s exec told me it was a Fred Meyer decision made by the same person who promised me my new position would not keep me from winning… I’ll probably never know which is true and who specifically screwed me out of the trip to Paris that I won fair and square… but I do know for sure, if you work for Kroger, you can’t trust anything your boss tells you. If you don’t believe me ask Sean Reilly.
Time passes; I opened seventy-five MC shops in Kroger stores from Anchorage, Alaska to Aiken, South Carolina and many cities in between. In 2014 Fred Meyer/Kroger/Murray’s Cheese and I part ways… without me ever getting to Paris or that “second fun trip”.
Years pass, The Man and I moved to NE Georgia to care for my aging parents (RIP); decided to stay and enjoy the rest of our lives in a much slower lane in a town with one traffic light. My cheese life continued via the Cheese Study Group and the CCP Scholarship Crowd-Funding efforts. In 2017, David Gremmel nominated me to be inducted into the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers, New World Order and my niche cheesemongering company became an LLC. During this time, there were a couple of “near misses” that might have gotten me to Paris, but as John Lennon said “Life got in the way”…
In February 2019 everything finally lined up when an email I never expected arrived… Comte USA invited me to be their guest on the 2019 Summer Press Tour, making it perfect for me to add-on a week in Paris…
Eight years later I finally made it to Paris… (You can follow my journey here.)
If you want to purchase Comte AOP online, click here.
Up next: My week in Paris… and would I go back?
In addition to being an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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