Solange Porley: the story of the woman who was born among cheeses and came to choose the best in the world

Solange Porley Króger was born in Montevideo, but her story—and perhaps also her destiny—was marked from before she could recognize it. “I was born among cheeses,” she said. It is not a metaphor: her father, a native of Nueva Helvecia, had grown up surrounded by the dairy tradition of the Colonia department. When he settled in Montevideo and met Solange’s mother, together they opened a cheese distributor in Ciudad Vieja. They named it El Quesón, a small shop that would eventually become the seed of a journey that today takes her to the highest stages of the global cheese world. She grew up among refrigeration chambers, Colonia molds, cuartirolos, and parmesans. But far from imagining that this environment would be her profession, Solange chose another path: she studied International Business. “I never imagined dedicating myself to the world of cheeses,” she admitted. However, true paths have a persistent way of returning, and one day her father proposed what seemed a natural ...