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Community Corner

Alameda Cheese Connoisseur: Molly Brownson

A third generation Alamedan talks about her love of fine foods.

Molly Brownson grew up eating humble cheeses like Gjetost—which she says is like Norwegian peanut butter. Thanks to a high school summer exchange program in France, her horizons broadened and she became enamored of French cheeses.

Now a sales representative with , a national importer and distributor of gourmet cheeses and other specialty food items, Brownson shares her love of good food and travel with her husband, Matt Cormier, who sells wine at Premier Cru.

The couple live in Alameda in a duplex owned by Brownson’s grandparents. Brownson still sees many friends from school days spent at , and . Nearly 20 years after her high school graduation, Brownson recalls the excitement of performing in musicals in Kofman Auditorium with the new drama teacher, .

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What was Alameda like when you were a kid? It was more blue collar back then. A lot of the businesses have changed, but the is still here. In the 1970s, I saw Grease and 101 Dalmatians there, and I had my fifth birthday party there at the theater and we watched Pete’s Dragon. Then it closed and became the Yankee Doodle Roller Rink where I roller skated. Next it was a dance club called the Twilight Zone. I worked there as a coat check girl, but I got fired because I would leave the coats unattended to go dancing!

How did you get into the cheese business? I was a drama major at San Francisco State and I was working at a natural grocery in the city on Polk Street. Eventually, a cheese buyer position came open. At that time, the industry wasn’t so trendy so I just had to be excited about cheese, and I got the job.

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After about a year as the cheese buyer there, one of my sales reps from a small distribution company called Food Matters asked me to come and work for them doing cheese quality control. I worked there for about six years before moving to The Cheese Works.

When wine tasters check the product, they will often spit it out. Did you do the same with cheese that you tested? Oh, no! I don’t spit cheese out!

How do you keep fit then? and biking to work.

What do you do now at The Cheese Works? I sell cheese. And olives and chocolates and lots of other goodies. We have all kinds of specialty foods—nice olive oils, vinegar, charcuterie.

I noticed you have cheese condiments listed on your website. What are cheese condiments? Different types of fruit spreads like quince paste, fig paste. We have a nice apricot almond panforte which goes nicely with cheese. And we just started carrying a new bacon jam, which is bacon cooked with onions and balsamic vinegar. It’s pretty yummy.

What sales regions and accounts are you responsible for? I work with a lot of grocery stores like Whole Foods in southern California and Central Markets in Texas. Also a lot of smaller specialty accounts like the Pasta Shop in Oakland.

What about in Alameda? The buys from us. Jeff Diamond at buys from us, although I’m not his official sales rep. Also, , ,  and in .

Do you ever bring your work home? No, other than old cheese!

Do you have some favorite cheeses? There are too many to name. A lot of favorites are French cheeses since that’s where so many of the great cheeses come from.

Do you prefer cheeses made from cow’s milk, goat’s milk or sheep’s milk? When the weather’s nice, I like the springy goat’s milk cheeses. I do love to visit the baby goats at the dairy farms. I’m a Capricorn, so I feel like they’re my little sisters. I love the stinky, washed rind cow’s milk cheeses, especially when it’s winter weather. And all of the firm Alpine cheeses like Beaufort and Comte, which are cow’s milk. The sheep’s milk cheeses we carry are mostly from the Pyrenees and they’re also quite lovely.

What do you do for fun? I like to sing. I like making crafts like homemade birthday cards. I like baking. And I love dancing. My husband and I will throw parties and he’ll DJ in the garage and I stay on the dance floor the entire night. I’m a big baseball fan—we’re going to spring training this year. We go to about 20 A’s games a year and we went to Cooperstown for Rickey Henderson’s inauguration.

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