Cheese has been a particular passion of Franck Hénot since childhood, a period he remembers as being "simple and happy, with the family gathered around the table, the decision-making centre of the house, where we would get together to gossip, squabble, laugh and celebrate. Not to mention eat!" he says. "For as far back as I can remember, there's always been cheese. I've always loved it. It's beautiful, it's alive, the taste is always changing and highly nuanced, like wine."
Franck, a native of Boulogne-sur-Mer, a small port city in Pas-de-Calais, arrived in Quebec in 1989 as an exchange student. He soon fell in love with La Belle Province and decided to call it home. With a degree in business and management, he learned the dynamics of the food industry by working for tobacco, maple syrup and fruit producers. In 1992, he was hired at Olymel and in 12 years, made his way to the top. "I started as a worker and when I left, I was a manager," he says. Going on to join Loblaws, he trained as a store manager before finding himself in charge of an Intermarché Boyer grocery store, which he eventually bought in 2010.
After taking a technical course at the Quebec Centre of Cheese Expertise where it's "all about how cheese is born, lives and ages," in September 2015, Franck opened Bleu & Persillé on Mount Royal Avenue.