At the turn of the 20th century, a young immigrant named Ben Moskowitz took a job as a dairyman among the chaotic jumble of pushcarts and crowded markets in Lower Manhattan. Two generations later, his son and grandson — Joseph and Adam Moskowitz — carry on his legacy at their international cheese and specialty food importing company, Larkin.
With more than 10 million pounds of cheese streaming through their Queens-based facility last year, chances are the last chunk of ripe Gorgonzola or creamy wedge of Brie you enjoyed passed through Larkin’s building. I recently spoke with the Moskowitzes about their unlikely family business and undying love for all things cheese.
The Forward: Your father/grandfather, Ben Moskowitz, was one of the country’s first distributors of imported cheese. How did he get his start?
Joseph Moskowitz: He and his family arrived in America from Poland in 1919 when he was 5 years old. We do not know what happened to his dad, but he wound up as the breadwinner of the family. He took an after-school job pushing butter, eggs and cheese around the old Washington market in Lower Manhattan — the company was called Walker Butter and Eggs.
From those beginnings he worked his way up to a partner. Somewhere in the mid-1950s, the company began selling imported cheeses, and an associate of his took him on his first trip to Europe. It was just after World War II, and the imported cheese business was just starting to flourish.
What were the first imported cheeses to America?
JM: There were three categories of cheese that the Wisconsin Dairy Association chose to protect, which would indicate that they were among the first: blue cheese, Italian-style provolone and Gouda.
Joe, when did you join the company?
JM: I joined in 1958, when I was 16, and spent 20 years working there. My dad, being a young, hard-working immigrant, did not have the national and international vision that I had. So, in 1978, I left and created Larkin. There is a famous old New Yorker magazine cover that shows the United States ending at the Hudson River. I always liked that cover because it was something I didn’t believe in at all. So I pushed the map as far west as I could — I took a local distribution system and made it national.
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