FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 22, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 65
dining out
Masters of Cheese
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com
In Long Island City, Michele Buster
and Pierluigi Sini have been running a
mini cheese empire for 20 years.
Buster and Sini have been importing
cheese and other speciality food items
from the Mediterranean to be enjoyed by
food lovers nationwide. Th e duo has run
Forever Cheese out of an offi ce at 36-36
33rd St. in Long Island City since 1998
and imports just under 500 food items
from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Croatia.
Th ough Buster began her career in
sports marketing — working for U.S.
Open Tennis and World Cup Soccer —
her travels led her to Sini and his family
of cheese makers.
Aft er Buster and Sini began dating, she
moved with him to Long Island City in
1992, where they both worked for his
family’s company. Sini’s family makes
Fulvi Pecorino Romano, a sheep’s milk
produced in Nepi, a town near Rome.
“I kept hearing that his importers were
not doing what they should for his family’s
cheeses,” Buster said. “I said, ‘Teach
me cheese and I’ll fi gure out how to do it.’”
Instead of just focusing on Fulvi
Pecorino Romano, Buster and Sini
expanded their company to import other
cheeses from Italy, Spain, Portugal and
Croatia. Th ey offi cially changed the name
of their company to Forever Cheese in
1998.
“Aft er spending numerous years where
nobody quite understood the name of
our company, how to pronounce the
name and it didn’t really refl ect that we
were importers of cheese, we decided to
change the name,” she said.
But just as they changed the name, the
duo decided to expand their selection and
began to import items to pair with cheese
— fi g cakes and tomato jam from Spain;
Mostarda, a fruit mustard from Portugal;
and extra virgin olive oil from from small
producers.
“What we’ve always tried to do is bring
very iconic products from Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Croatia and introduce them to
the American public,” Buster said. “Not
by making them American but importing
the things we’re
impassioned of and
making everybody
fall in love with
them.”
Buster and Sini were pioneers in the
specialty food industry. Th ey were the fi rst
company to import cheese from Portugal
to the market and were at the forefront of
introducing Marcona almonds, known as
the “Queen of Almonds,” from Spain to
American consumers.
Buster, who lived in Spain for three years,
was also responsible for bringing Drunken
Goat, a semi-soft goat cheese soaked in
Spanish Doble Pasta wine, to the American
specialty food market.
Forever Cheese has come a long way
aft er starting in a one-bedroom apartment
at Shore Towers in Astoria. Buster
has also been able to take her suppliers
along for the ride and prides herself on
having close relationships with all of the
farmers and producers she works with.
Buster regularly takes trips to visit her
suppliers and takes her staff to educate
them and help the producers “be successful
with these products.”
“We’re very proud of what we do
because we work directly with our producers,”
she said. “Th is is a thing few people
can say. I’m on a fi rst name basis with
them. We don’t work with middle men.”
Western Queens residents can pick up
Forever Cheese products at Astoria Bier
and Cheese, Sorriso Fine Foods, Green
Bay Marketplace and Food Cellar under
the brand Mitica.
“We always told everybody that the Long
Island City neighborhood was an amazing
neighborhood,” Buster said. “We used to
belong to the East River Tennis Club. You
had the best of both worlds — Long Island
City was not so hustle and bustle and you
were so close the city.”
Buster said she and Sini, who are no
longer dating, plan to stay in the area for
years to come and will focus on bringing
the best products from the Mediterranean
to an American audience.
“We were just two young kids who had
all this passion and who had what it took
to bring all the best products,” she said.
“It’s always been about the product and
embracing the people who make them as
being very special and transmitting that
to our customers. We never set out to
conquer the world. We don’t need to be
the biggest. We don’t want to be the biggest.
We just want to be the best, the best
service with the best product.”
To learn more about Forever Cheese
products and where to purchase them,
visit www.forevercheese.com.
Photos courtesy of Forever Cheese
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PASSOVER 2018
link
/www.forevercheese.com
/www.richersbakery.com
