Meet EmJ Jakubowics, Weaver Street Market cheese specialist

For EmJ Jakubowics, the cheese specialist at the Carrborro grocery co-op Weaver Street Market, cheese is both an art and a lifestyle: a combination of creativity and honed craft, where they look for unique and well-made cheeses, all cut and curated for the local community. 

Jakubowics' cheese career first began while living in Chicago in their mid-twenties, when they started a job at Whole Foods Market's One Chicago location. While working at Whole Foods, they decided to take the test for the American Cheese Society to become a certified cheese professional. 

After passing, Jakubowics began to work with farmers, cheese producers and cheese makers. They have worked in the industry for the past nine years, starting as Weaver Street's cheese specialist in 2019.  

Jakubowics said that to select cheeses, they pick customers' brains for their preferences, including what foods they are pairing the cheeses with. 

“It's really just about what [cheese] you like fitting your food,” they said. “I just think that you shouldn't prevent yourself from trying new things.”

As a cheese specialist, Jakubowics knows all of the ins and outs of the process of cheesemaking, and what goes on behind the scenes. There are many nuances to what creates a good cheese, starting with how cows are treated and fed. The type of grass a cow consumes, for example, changes the color of their milk and thus the cheese. 

Jakubowics said that their favorite parts of the job are the process of cutting cheese, testing out new cheeses and hearing opinions from customers and coworkers as well as doing inventory. 

“I really like giving customers new things, a new experience and getting them to try something that maybe they wouldn't have normally,” they said. 

Jakubowics is also a member of the co-op's Board of Directors. For Peg Todloski, specialty merchandiser at Weaver Street Market, Jakubowics' role on the board demonstrates their dedication to the grocery store and to the community. 

“They care about where they live,” she said. “They care about their friendships and their relationships and their coworkers.”

Todloski is a buyer for all four of Weaver Street Market's stores in the beer, wine, cheese and mercantile departments. She started as a buyer for cheese around 15 years ago, with it now being one of her favorite parts of her job. 

Todloski began working with Jakubowics after meeting them for breakfast one morning in Chapel Hill, where they chatted about the cheese industry. 

“I thought, well, this person really knows about cheese,” she said. “I had a nice meeting with them, and I liked them a lot. They seemed very down to earth and we had some laughs, so I highly recommended that we hire them.” 

Todloski also said that she appreciated Jakubowics' hard work, including their knowledge, their passion for cheese and their ability to sell cheese while keeping customers' needs in mind.

Jon McDonald, the manager of the Bread Bakery at Weaver Street Market and a member of the Weaver Street Board of Directors, has been working alongside Jakubowics for the past few months on the board, and he said that Jakubowics works hard to achieve the mission of Weaver Street, which is giving the community better access to healthy food options.

“On the best days, it's a super fun place to work,” he said. “Obviously it's food service and retail, so there's the normal grind of a lot of that stuff. We're coming in on Thanksgiving, which is a really busy time for us on the holidays. But, we get to work alongside some pretty cool folks.”

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