Culture Magazine

30 culturecheesemag.com T R AV E L 202 2 V O I C I N G S Yeah, I had planned to ask if you were from a foodie household, but it sounds like it's a definite yes! GH: Yes, for sure. My best critic is my mother, and I love my family because they're not biased people. And so, they let me know when I'm right and they tell me when I'm wrong. So, you learned from a combination of family and eating your way through Europe! GH: Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. And I feel that when I first worked here at Say Cheese, that first year was my training course, and I ate so much cheese. I must have gained 30 pounds that year, I kid you not. But you know what I learned the most? Was that certain cheeses taste differently certain times of the year. And that was my biggest question that I had asked people once I owned my own business, why does this taste so much better during the spring and the summer, or the fall in the winter? And they're like, it's better then because of what the animals are eating! Your shop has the feel of an old-world cheese counter. Was it a choice to emphasize European classics? Do you also carry some of the newer American-made riffs on classic styles? GH: So, we do, I don't carry them all the time, but I love American cheeses. I haven't been exposed to as many as I would like to… I sometimes have a little bit of a hard time with some of the American cheeses that are so expensive. I am the type of buyer that buys product that you feel like you're getting a good bang for your buck. And I'm not knocking it at all, but you know— You can only carry a few at a time, because you're not going to be going through a $36-a-pound wheel that fast. GH: Exactly. And it's so interesting because there are so many European cheeses that we carry that are like, for instance, there's the Stinking Bishop, that's $35 a pound, and we do exceptionally well with that. There's a gorgeous blue cheese that comes from, I believe it's Oregon. And they only carry it during— Rogue River? GH: Yes, thank you! Yeah, so there's those kinds, like that cheese? That's a phenomenal cheese! came back, she threw her pencil at the wall and she said, this business is yours. And I said what do you mean, it's mine? And she said, you are talented, you're gifted, and you deserve it. You have the drive and the energy for it, and I can't sell this. And I would be willing to sell it to you at a price that's affordable. And by golly, she did. Wow. GH: Wow is right. And I had put my thinking cap on and got some investors and was so excited to get people to believe in me and my concept and my bright ideas. And I paid out my first investor within maybe 30 days… and paid my second investor within 90 days. I had taken over Say Cheese, November 15, 1999. And I had the opportunity to go through a really successful holiday and, you know, Silver Lake being Silver Lake, really open-minded, it's a really free-spirited community that was not of color or anything else back in the day. It used to be the armpit of Los Angeles, and it's [now] one of the top neighborhoods to live in the US. People…didn't have issues, but I also didn't let it be known that it was Black owned either. I always just told people that I managed it because I didn't want any problems out of anyone, and my business had done so well. My point is, was that I was able to pay out my second investor. And then I don't remember the year, but when I turned 40, which was 13 years ago, I had done a Visa commercial and I was able to pay out my third and final investor and had become the sole owner-proprietor of Say Cheese 13 years ago. And you know, there was just this liberty and this freedom of like, oh my god, what an accomplishment, that this is mine now. You know? Absolutely. GH: But you know, ironically, as much as I wanted to go to CIA so that I could learn more about food… my food experience has been through my grandfather, who was a professionally trained chef in the Navy, and he taught my mom very well. I've been saying to my mom for years that she should have been a chef, I learned so much from her. People ask me all the time, you could go to Europe to learn how to cook. And I'm like, no, there was just a bar in my family where, you know, we didn't eat like my good friends did, where they ate at McDonald's half the nights of the week. My mother cooked, there was a meal on the table at least minimum five nights a week.

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