ABOUT BOISE BLEU

Welcome to the Boise Bleu website. My name is Margaret "Markie" Vega, founder and co-owner of this company.

I am originally from Royal Oak, Michigan and the youngest of six children. I remember helping my mother in the kitchen when she was either baking or cooking the family dinner. By the time I was in 6th grade, my mom went back to work and I took over the chore of cooking dinner for the rest of the family. I have been cooking and baking ever since.

Because of my early experience, I have worked in the food service industry for over 20 years.

The original recipe base for our topping, came from my sister Deb, and then adjusted by my mother. From there I added my own little twists and served it to my friends here in Boise. Suddenly, I started getting empty jars and requests for refills. The demand was a little surprising and overwhelming. So when you have a good recipe or a dish, "marketing" it sounds good, when it is someone else telling you. The problem is how to get started and the proper motivation. Becoming unemployed Dec. 17 of 2004, was motivation enough for me. My girlfriend and soon to be business partner, came up to me and said "your out of work, toooo bad, now I guess there is no reason why we can't market your blue cheese dressing". I said "no, it is a topping, besides, I have no job, I have no money, and I don't know where to begin". Cynthia grabbed me and said "we will do it together". That same evening our other girlfriend cam up with the name Boise Bleu, Thank You Shelly Johnson. As the saying goes..."THE REST IS HISTORY". Thank you and enjoy Boise Bleu Salad Topping. ~ Markie Vega

Hi, my name is Cynthia Thresher and I am co-owner and partner of Boise Bleu, LLC. Welcome to our website. Here is a little background about me. I am a native Idahoan from the Boise area, but I was lucky to be able to ride the rails with my grandfather, as a little girl. This experience not only taught me to take chances in life, but to show me life outside of a child normal existence. During this time, I always found myself in the kitchen of rail cars. Whether the cooks served me "Cream of Wheat" or a steak I was also interested in how they made it. From that point on, I have always loved to be in the kitchen and entertaining friends/family. Because of this I have been in the food industry for over 25 yrs, except a short absence while I was working in the corporate world.

Since I have always been the "party planner", I was always planning get togethers either at my home or a friends home, I would ask the guest to bring a dish of some kind. Well someone will always bring a salad or vegetable tray. When Markie was first introduced to our group, she brought blue cheese salad topping/dip. None of us really liked blue cheese, but then we tried Markie's and it really was different than any other. So yes, I was one of the friends who brought back empty jars to be refilled. Then the light bulb went on, and I said to her "Let's market it, what do we have to lose". Markie was not so sure. When the opportunity was right, I told her flat out..."we'll do this together"!! So here we are expanding our product and blazing new territories. It is funny how well this idea has brought two friends together, start our own business at "our age" in this "man's world" takes a great deal of guts.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we have in bringing this product to you. With as much love, from our kitchen to yours, Cynthia.

Personal Portraits by Dave Johnson ~ Natural Images