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voyager-into-the-unknown · 5 years

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An Evening at an Earth Mall

By truegryffindorforever2

(Part 2 of a series, beginning with “An Afternoon in the Garden”)

Summary: Sam is overprotective, Colleen is supportive, Hunk texts Lance when he’s shopping at the mall, and Lance nearly dies of second hand embarrassment when he realizes that Katie Holt, is in fact, not a girl, but a young woman.

After heading to the men’s locker room to change out of his Garrison uniform and into comfortable civilian clothing, Lance headed towards the base’s garage to meet up with Pidge and Colleen. As he approached Mrs. Holt’s car, he heard Sam’s voice from a distance.

“Boyfriend?! Since when?” Sam exclaimed angrily.

“Since today. But we have been really close for a long time, Dad. We were best friends for the last few years—“

“He’s too old for you!”

“He’s a year and eight months older than me. And besides, I’m eighteen years old, and that’s old enough to have a boyfriend.”

“Katie, I’ve watched The Voltron Show. Colleen, did you know that this boy’s nickname is Loverboy Lance?! How did he get a nickname like that, Katie?”

“Dad, that show was totally fake, and Coran gave him that ridiculous nickname. We all thought it was hilarious because Lance hasn’t ever really had a serious girlfriend before—“

“Your friends say that he’s the biggest flirt in the Galaxy. How do you know he won’t break your heart?”

“Dad, please. Lance is a great guy. He’s sweet and funny and honest and brave. And I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you right now if it weren’t for him. He’s saved my life quite a few times.”

Sam exhaled, then was silent, pondering all of this. Lance stood in shadow, behind a large armored vehicle that kept him hidden from view. His heart was hammering in his chest. He wanted the Holts to like him. What could he do to earn Sam’s trust?

“Colleen, what do you think of all this?”

“Well, he seems like a nice young man, and I trust our daughter’s judgement.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Also, he’s probably heading this way right now, so you had better be on your best behavior, Sam.”

“All right, but whether you are eighteen or eighty, Katie Holt, so long as you live under my roof, you will have a curfew when you go out at night with that young man. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lance knew he had to face Sam eventually, but at the moment he just wanted to stay hidden. He took a deep breath, and stepped forward into the light.

“There he is.” Pidge waved, smiling at him as she moved toward him.

Lance enveloped Pidge in his arms, and she squeezed him tightly, giving him a swift kiss on the cheek. He grinned at her.

“Hello everyone!” He turned to Sam and snapped to attention to give a salute. “Commander Holt, sir.”

Sam saluted him in return. “Paladin.” Lance extended his right hand and Sam shook it cordially. “So, I hear you are escorting my daughter to the Garrison Ball.”

“Yes, sir.” Pidge took Lance’s left hand, giving it a little squeeze. He smiled at her, then turned back to Sam. “It’s a great honor sir. I think I must be the luckiest guy in the universe.” Pidge beamed at him, and they both blushed as pink as the sunset over the grand mesa just beyond the western gate.

Sam felt a wave of nostalgia, remembering how young he and Colleen were when they first started dating. For a moment, Lance reminded him of himself at that age. The genuine affection between the two of young people was apparent. He honestly couldn’t remember seeing his daughter so happy since she returned home from space, and for a moment he felt a pang of regret. He had missed so much of her growing up while he was a prisoner of the Galra. She matured into a brilliant, courageous young woman, one who had fought warlords and sentries, bounty hunters and space pirates, and who had helped save the universe from destruction alongside this awkwardly earnest, gangly young man who obviously wore his heart on his sleeve.

“You kids have a nice time at the mall. Matt and I are eating supper in the mess hall tonight, and then we’re finishing up a few things in the lab before the weekend.”

“Well, I’ve had a notion. I’m making my famous baked ziti with garlic knots for lunch on Saturday. Sam, wouldn’t it be nice if we invited Lance over tomorrow?”

“Indeed. How does 11:00 sound?”

“Sounds great, sir.”

Colleen smiled. “You know, Lance, Sam and I were quite the ballroom dancers back in our day. We could give you and Katie a few pointers if you’d like.”

“It’s true. Mom and dad gave me dancing lessons since I was little, whether I liked it or not.”

“She’s a natural,” Sam added.

“My parents taught me most of the traditional Latin American dances when I was just a kid, but I am really out of practice. This is going to be fun!” Lance said with enthusiasm.

“Well, we’re all set, then. We had better head out towards the mall,” Colleen said cheerfully. “We’ll be home around ten, dear.” She kissed her husband goodbye and got into the driver’s seat. Katie, to her mother’s surprise, didn’t want to sit in the front passenger’s seat as she usually did. She sat on the back seat with Lance, who couldn’t seem to wipe the dreamy smile off of his face if he tried. As they sped away across the desert Colleen was almost certain that he was holding her daughter’s hand.

The mall wasn’t too crowded, considering that it was a Friday night. Lance was impressed with how quickly the place had been remodeled in the aftermath of the invasion. So much had changed since they had been chosen as Paladins of Voltron, and it took some getting used to. They encountered nearly as many off-world species as humans among the vendors and shoppers, but somehow it was weirdly familiar.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were back at the Space Mall,” said Pidge, voicing his thoughts aloud.

“Yeah. Hey, look, Pidge! It’s the guy from the Earth Store!” Lance pointed to the skinny grey-green alien wearing an Area 51 baseball cap. “I don’t think he’s giving away any free Kalteneckers today, though.”

“Kalteneckers?” asked Colleen.

“She’s our cow. It’s a long story, Mom.”

“Sam said something about you two having a cow in space, but I thought he was kidding, or delusional.”

“She was free with purchase. Pidge really wanted that Mercury Gameflux II with a vintage copy of Killbot Phantasm, but we were completely broke,” Lance explained.

“So we took off our shoes, rolled up our trouser legs and went wading in the mall’s wishing fountain to look for coins,” said Pidge.

“Katie Holt! You know I raised you better than that. My daughter, the criminal,” Colleen chided, in mock disapproval.

“Yeah, she’s a bad influence on me.” Lance grinned. “We nearly got arrested by the Mall Cop. But we escaped with Kaltenecker on a hover board.”

“The things a man will do for love,” Pidge teased. “Lance hit his head when we escaped and nearly gave himself a concussion.”

“Yeah, but you wanted to kiss it and make it all better, right?”

“No, I did not,” she said indignantly, “but I had to bandage you up after that fall because Hunk was riding shotgun with Coran, and Keith was ready to eject you into space.”

Colleen sighed. How had these kids managed to become saviors of the universe? Perhaps the Creator of the Cosmos had a sense of humor.

After a bit of window shopping, they found both the tuxedo shop and the dress shop they were searching for.

“Lance, when you are done trying on tuxedos, you can ask the saleswoman at the dress shop to show you to the lounging area in the back of the store. There are some comfortable armchairs for patient husbands, or in this case, boyfriends, who may have to wait a long time for their significant other to finish trying on dresses.”

Finding a tuxedo that fit him was relatively easy. Lance was tall and slim, and nearly any style looked great on him. He tried on the most classy one he could afford, and then made finger guns at himself as he admired his own reflection in the shop’s main mirror. “Razzle Dazzle, Baby!” He did a little dance, humming to himself as he strutted back and forth, and then he stopped himself, realizing that the other refined gentle beings in the shop were staring at him. “I had better stop that,” he thought. “Sam Holt definitely doesn’t want his daughter dating a goofball.”

After he was finished at the tuxedo shop, Lance headed back to the dress shop and found one of the comfortable armchairs that Colleen was talking about. There were magazines to browse through, but they were all about fashions for ladies, so he decided to check his phone when he sat down. He had a few missed calls. There was a text from Hunk that caught his attention as soon as he checked his messages.

Hunk: Where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you all evening.

Lance: At the mall. I just picked out my tux for the Garrison Ball. 😎

Hunk: Wait a minute, the ball? Did you do it?!

Lance: Do what?

Hunk: Ask her out.

Lance: Ask who out?

Hunk: You’re denser than a neutron star. YOU KNOW WHO I’M TALKING ABOUT. Your best friend.

Lance: Sorry, Hunk, I can’t take you to the ball. My girlfriend would be jealous.

Hunk: Not me! Your other best friend! And since when do you have a girlfriend?!

Lance: Um, since this afternoon. Since we made out in her mom’s hydroponics lab. 😙💋😉

Hunk: No way!

Lance: Yes, way. 😎 *Razzle Dazzle!*

Hunk: I hope you were a gentleman. She’s a sweet, innocent girl, so you better keep that in mind, Loverboy. And she happens to be my best friend, too. So if you ever hurt her...

Lance: I’ll never hurt her. I love her.

Hunk: 😮😃😍

Lance: She loves me too. 🥰

Hunk: I’m crying rn. I’m so happy for you both.

Lance: I call dibs on the best man.

Hunk: What?

Lance: When we get married, I call dibs on you for the best man. Pidge will fight me for you, so I’m calling dibs.

Hunk: 😂 You haven’t even gone on your first date yet, you nut.

Lance: No, but we have already planned our second date, which is really happening before the first date, so maybe the second date really is the first date.

Hunk: You’re not making any sense.

Lance: Italian food and ballroom dancing tomorrow at the Holts.

Hunk: Smooth. They don’t call you Loverboy for nothing.

Lance: ✨😎✨

Hunk: Talk to you later, man.

Lance: Later, dude.

Lance checked a few other messages and put his phone away. Just when he was bored enough to pick up a magazine, he heard Pidge and her mother having a conversation in the dressing room closest to him.

“Let’s see the next one, darling.” There was the sound of a dressing room door opening. “Oh that color is beautiful on you. Turn around...let’s see it...Oh, I love it!”

“It’s my favorite so far, too,” said Pidge.

“But you can’t wear it with your bra straps showing like that. Try it on with the strapless bra.”

“I did. It doesn’t fit right.”

“Why not? Is it the right size?”

“I don’t have enough up top to hold it up. It keeps falling off me. I might as well not wear a bra at all.”

Lance’s eyes were as round as saucers and his face felt as if it were on fire. His imagination was now filled with naughty thoughts about his girlfriend wearing a bra, then wearing a strapless bra, and then wearing...

“Did you try the bustier with it?”

“You mean this white lacy thing that looks like a corset?”

“Yes, with the matching lace panties. Aren’t they adorable?”

Lance’s jaw dropped, then he covered his face with the magazine, hoping no one saw how he looked right now. Is this how spontaneous human combustion occurs? He might just burst into flames any moment now. Holy crow!

“Mom, this looks like bridal lingerie. And it’s expensive.”

“It is, dear. But it’s so worth it.”

“But why spend so much on underwear that no one will get to see except me?”

“Well, if everything goes well, maybe Lance will get to see you wearing it...someday.”

“Mother!”

“I meant on your wedding night, dear.”

“MOM! Can you be any more embarrassing?!”

Lance had sunk as deeply into the armchair as humanly possible. Maybe if he sat still long enough he could turn invisible. He hoped the armchair wasn’t flammable.

Several humiliating minutes (hours?) later, he heard Pidge and her mother come to an agreement about the dress (and the lacy unmentionables), and he decided that it would be best if he wasn’t there when they came out of the dressing room area. If Pidge saw his face she would know instantly what he had overheard, and then he actually might die of embarrassment, or worse, he might say something stupid like “Aw, that’s a cute little bustier,” and then she might turn her bayard on him and murder him on the spot.

Yes, now was definitely a good time to go use the men’s room. He would meet them in front of the store later.

The shoe store was next, and Pidge was apprehensive about wearing the sort of high heeled slippers that would have to be worn with her dress. She teetered back and forth awkwardly when she she tried to walk on such tiny heels, and once, she stumbled right into Lance’s arms. He caught her, and smiled his most charming smile at her. “I always knew you would fall for me,” he said in his huskiest voice. “I’m irresistible.”

“More like incorrigible. Mom, are you sure I can’t wear flats with this dress?”

Finally, after finding a pair of shoes with a wider (and lower) heel, they put all of their purchases in the trunk of the car, then went back into the mall for a late supper at the food court.

“Hey, look, they have a Vrepit Sal’s!” Lance exclaimed happily.

“Mom, you have to try this place. Their whole menu is based on Hunk’s original recipes. The food is amazing!”

*******

It was a clear night, the desert sky alit by thousands of distant stars, some with worlds they had visited, teeming with life. The drive home was a peaceful one, with Colleen at the wheel. Through her rear view mirror, she could see Lance and Pidge sitting behind her, quietly reminiscing about their many adventures in space, until Pidge yawned, snuggled closer to him, and finally fell asleep against Lance’s chest. Lance, who already had his arm around her, kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes, smiling as one does when having a very, very pleasant dream.

#plance #pidge #lance #colleen holt #sam holt #hunk garrett #flirty robot #katie holt #vld #voltron

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televisioncrushtournament · 3 years

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Rich and creamy ricotta cheese is combined with mozzarella, beaten egg and spaghetti sauce to make a rich and filling sauce for cooked ziti. Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for a delicious, classic Italian casserole.

#Baked Ziti Ii #Baked #Ziti #Ii

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secretdestinydaze-blog · 6 years

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Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos

$1 Monday! Culvers single scoops of frozen custard in a dish or cone! Yum!

— BestLife.Tips (@BestLife_Tips) October 23, 2017

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safitriariyanti20-blog · 7 years

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A Wine Lover Weekly Review Dari $ 10 Wines - Menyingkap Sebuah Abruzzi, Italia Sangiovese

Ups. Selama bertahun-tahun saya kadang-kadang Ulasan anggur yang sama dua kali. Tapi ini adalah pertama kalinya bahwa saya telah melakukannya dalam jangka waktu tiga bulan. Saya kira bahwa tastings awal tidak membuat banyak kesan pada saya. Tapi aku harus memeriksa kotak pencarian baru-baru diinstal saya. Lagi pula, saya memutuskan untuk tidak berbohong, atau membuang ulasan ini. Tapi saya berjanji untuk tidak meninjau anggur ini lagi dalam waktu dekat. Seperti yang Anda ketahui, Sangiovese adalah tanda tangan Italia anggur merah yang ditemukan di terkenal Tuscan Chianti DOCG. korban saat ini adalah IGT anggur rendah, salah satu yang menjanjikan untuk mengekspresikan lokasinya, dalam hal ini Terre di Chieti, di wilayah Italia tengah Abruzzi. Hanya untuk catatan anggur ini mungkin merah atau putih dan merah tidak perlu Sangiovese berbasis. Chieti adalah rumah bagi beberapa museum dan universitas besar. Anda dekat dengan kota Ortona, situs Pertempuran Ortona, seorang yang sangat berdarah Perang Dunia II pertempuran antara Kanada dan Nazi Jerman. Anda dapat memilih untuk mengunjungi luas terdekat Abruzzi National Park. Pendamping anggur adalah (sebelumnya tidak direview) halal Chianti hampir dua kali harga.

KEBIJAKAN WINE REVIEW KAMI Semua anggur yang kita rasa dan ulasan dibeli dengan harga eceran penuh.

anggur pada Caldora Sangiovese Terre di Chieti IGT 2010 12,5% alkohol sekitar $ 10

Mari kita mulai dengan materi pemasaran "Mencicipi Catatan:. Warna Ruby-garnet; cherry dan berry-rempah aroma; bertubuh sedang, seimbang keasaman dan menengah tanin; cherry terang, blackberry matang, bumi dan ek rasa, dan finish menengah Melayani Saran : Minum sekarang dengan lasagna daging atau spaghetti dan bakso "dan sekarang untuk review saya..

Pada pertama menyeruput anggur mencicipi ceri semi-manis. Ini disajikan keasaman rendah dan tanin bulat. kerupuk beras Jepang diasah keasaman sedikit. makan awal saya terlibat lambat dimasak daging sapi. Menanggapi Sangiovese ini adalah bulat dan manis meningkat. Kentang yang menyertai dibawa keluar cokelat di persembahan ini, tapi keasaman terlalu manis. Dengan ubi jalar cairan penuh tapi pendek. Sebuah lauk kacang polong terus memberikan cokelat dan teman kita Italia memiliki panjang yang baik. Menariknya cukup menambahkan sejumlah dermawan sambal Cina untuk daging tidak berpengaruh nyata pada anggur.

makan berikutnya mulai dengan cabai bakar sayap ayam. gelas menanggapi dengan banyak cokelat, keasaman yang baik, dan tanin yang seimbang. Madu bawang putih kaki ayam bakar dibawa keluar lebih banyak buah dan Red memiliki keasaman menyegarkan. Sebuah tomat segar diberikan keasaman agak mentah.

makan terakhir saya mulai dengan zaitun Mediterania. persembahan itu manis dengan hanya sedikit buah dan keasaman ringan. Itu mengambil saat berhadapan bawang acar. Kemudian datang kotak Baked Ziti Siciliano bahwa saya disiram dengan parutan keju Parmesan. Sekarang cairan itu bulat tapi agak tipis, menyajikan sedikit cokelat dan ceri hitam. nanas segar memusnahkan anggur ini. Ketika dipasangkan dengan dark chocolate Swiss dengan rasa jeruk dan almond cair ini tipis dan bla.

putusan akhir. Aku mengatakan itu sebelumnya dan saya akan mengatakannya sekarang - saya tidak akan membeli anggur ini lagi.

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runningwiththemusic-blog · 7 years

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A Wine Lover Weekly Review Dari $ 10 Wines - Sebuah Utara Italia Rose

Selama bertahun-tahun saya telah beberapa anggur dari Veneto (seperti di Venesia) wilayah timur laut Italia. MGM Mondo Del Vino anggur didirikan pada tahun 1991. Mereka menghasilkan sekitar 25 juta botol dan 4,5 juta kantong 3-liter dalam kotak anggur per tahun. Jumlah ini lebih dari 40 juta botol per tahun. Mereka memiliki kebun-kebun anggur di 8 wilayah Italia. situs mereka mengacu pada 9 baris anggur tetapi tidak menyebutkan Mezzomondos. fasilitas produksi perusahaan sebagian besar di kota kecil Priocca di Piedmont. kantor mereka yang sebagian besar di ibukota provinsi Forli, Emilia-Romagna, yang mungkin telah didirikan pada hari salad Julius Caesar. Forli memiliki sejarah yang sangat kaya. Anda bisa mendapatkan mengintip bagaimana itu tampak di Kelimabelas Century dengan menikmati Ubisoft 2009 Assasins Creed II. anggur pendamping kami adalah rosé Sangiovese Australia Selatan sekitar dua kali harga.

KEBIJAKAN WINE REVIEW KAMI Semua anggur yang kita rasa dan ulasan dibeli dengan harga eceran penuh.

anggur pada Mezzomondo Rosato Merlot Veneto IGT 2010 12% alkohol sekitar $ 8.

Mari kita mulai dengan materi pemasaran "Mencicipi Catatan: warna pink terang, pedas, strawberry dan jeruk aroma; kering, tubuh cahaya, rasa jeruk dan finish renyah Melayani Saran:. Sajikan dengan pasta ringan atau salad." Dan sekarang untuk review saya.

Pada teguk pertama anggur ini cukup gelap dan pendek dengan keasaman yang baik. Makan pertama berpusat pada steak putaran lambat-dimasak yang meringankan dan manis minuman ini. Kentang yang menyertai memiliki efek mengasah persembahan ini tetapi masih datang pendek. Ketika dipasangkan dengan kacang hijau mandi dalam saus tomat hancur, teman kita Italia menjadi bulat dan manis. saus cabai Cina pada daging membuat rosé mengambil untuk menyambut kepedasan. stroberi segar dibawa keluar kegelapan dan rasa terbakar di kaca tapi anggur itu lemah.

Fokus makan depan itu tumis nugget dada ayam, dibumbui dengan ketumbar, lada hitam, biji jintan, dan hancur cabai. Sekarang Venetian ini terasa apel hijau dengan menyegarkan keasaman. Quinoa dengan kacang polong hijau diperkuat keasaman. Brokoli kukus diberikan metalik cair dan manis. nanas segar membuatnya sangat lemah. Menanggapi Swiss Dark Chocolate dengan Orange Flavor dan Almond persembahan gelap dengan keasaman rendah dan tidak banyak buah.

makan terakhir saya mulai dengan manis, kerupuk beras Jepang tidak sedap yang mengandung kacang yang mengambil buah anggur sambil menyampaikan rasa manis ringan .. Kemudian datang kotak Baked Ziti Siciliano bahwa saya disiram dengan keju parut Parmesan. Sekarang cairan ditawarkan keasaman yang baik, namun saya tidak bisa membantu tetapi berpikir bahwa anggur ini cukup hambar. Haagen-Dazs kopi es krim memusnahkan minuman saya ke ketiadaan.

putusan akhir. Saya tidak akan membeli anggur ini lagi dan tidak akan menempatkan persembahan lain anggur ini di mana saja di dekat bagian atas daftar saya.

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jeremyau · 7 years

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This Secretive Billionaire Makes The Cheese For Pizza Hut, Domino's And Papa John's

Chloe Sorvino

Forbes Staff

This story appears in the June 13, 2017 issue of Forbes. Subscribe

AN AVALANCHE OF CHEESE pours into the test kitchen at the Denver headquarters of Leprino Foods, the mozzarella supplier to Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's. First, thin wisps of low-moisture mozzarella, then a diced alternative, followed by an "artisanal" version, cut short and wide. Then come flavored cheeses made with a mozzarella base, as well as provolone, cheddar and Monterey Jack.

Cooks bring out a take-and-bake pizza, a New York-style pie and a stuffed crust, fresh from nearly a dozen ovens. Another course features frozen food made with Leprino products, including ham-and-cheddar Hot Pockets, Stouffer's lasagna and Smart Ones baked ziti. Then come the cheese cubes marketed as snack pairings: pear flavor with nuts or Gorgonzola with pretzels. Team Leprino next brings out dessert: salted-caramel-flavored mozzarella wrapped in hot dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar. After an hour, the plastic shot glasses appear for sampling the company's lactose and whey powders, which end up in protein bars, Yoplait yogurt, Pillsbury Toaster Strudel and baby formula consumed by millions of infants annually.

Two floors above this dairy deluge, in a dark-wood-paneled office with white marble floors, Corinthian columns and gold accents, sits James Leprino, the Willy Wonka of cheese. "It's hard for me to believe I agreed to this," the 79-year-old billionaire says. "I really like to keep my privacy."

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Camera shy: If you Google James Leprino’s picture, you’ll get fellow billionaire John Malone. This 1978 company portrait is the only known image of Leprino Foods’ founder (right). He speaks with former president Wes Allen (left).

Indeed he does, to a nearly unprecedented degree, given the way he dominates his industry. Leprino has somehow eluded photographers for decades: A Google search picks up photos of fellow Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz and cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder. There isn't a single image of Leprino on his company's website. But after nearly 60 years running the business and more than a decade on Forbes' list of billionaires, Leprino, worth an estimated $3 billion, is finally willing to be interviewed about how his family's grocery in Denver's Little Italy became the world's top producer of pizza cheese--the slightly derisive term competitors use to describe its mozzarella. In all, Leprino Foods sells more than a billion pounds of cheese a year, to the tune of $3 billion in revenue.

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The little-known Leprino (he declined to be photographed for this article) rates as one of America's all-time monopolists. He lets others worry about fresh mozzarella balls and pizza that taste like they were made in the old country. His laser focus on large pizza chains has allowed him to control as much as 85% of the market for pizza cheese and somehow sell simultaneously to a set of customers — Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's and Little Caesars — that try to cut each others' throat in every way that doesn't involve where they buy their milk products. Dominating the market has its advantages: He's able to invest in technology that no run-of-the-mill dairy farmer ever could, resulting in more than 50 patents —and an estimated 7% net margin, which dwarfs the dairy-industry average.

Cody Pickens for Forbes

Leprino Foods is the world's largest mozzarella company with sales of more than $3 billion annually.

As the diamonds of his watch bezel shimmer on his wrist, Leprino takes out his beat-up black leather wallet, removes the rubber band holding it shut and reveals a card featuring the four company watchwords: quality, service, price, ethics. "I've got everybody keeping one in their pocket," Leprino says. "The company was growing so fast they were missing this important message."

Quality is listed first intentionally. It's easy to mock his product (Frankencheese, anyone?), but Leprino Foods is one of the few dairy giants that have never had a recall. Every Monday at 11:30 a.m., Leprino walks down to the test kitchen along with two dozen of his most trusted executives for the weekly Monday Melts meeting like the one I attended. The executives test samples of the cheese produced for some 300 clients in 40 countries and check every complaint received the week before. "Your employees have got to know you're not a phony," he says. "They've got to believe in you.

"I support what's going on, but I don't try to lead it," he adds. "My job is to hold them responsible for doing what they said they're going to do."

He wasn't always so hands-off. While acknowledging his "genius," numerous industry executives paint Leprino, in his younger days, as an "aggressive" leader who wasn't above visiting individual franchise owners to pitch his technologically advanced cheese. But very few will go into detail, and fewer still will attach their name to their comments. One pizza entrepreneur puts it this way about the man who owns 100% of this mozzarella giant: "Jim Leprino is a very powerful man."

Leprino Foods

Mike Leprino Sr. stands in the original Leprino family shop selling Italian specialties.

LEPRINO'S OFFICE BEARS testaments to his roots, including a black-and-white photo of his mother on her wedding day at age 16 and a bronze relief of James and his father rolling fresh mozzarella balls. Leprino Foods' genesis lies in the mountains of southern Italy, which Mike Leprino Sr. left in 1914, at age 16. Accustomed to high altitude, he settled in Denver; without much of an education or the ability to read and write English, he began farming. More than three decades later, in 1950, he finally opened a grocery store to sell the produce he grew. Italian specialties followed, including fresh ricotta, mozzarella balls and ravioli made by James' sister Angie.

Meanwhile, James, the youngest of five children, noticed his classmates spending free time at neighborhood pizza joints. After graduating high school in 1956, he started working with his father full-time and shared a revelation: "Pizzerias in this part of the country were buying 5,000 pounds of cheese a week," he recalls. "I thought, This is a good market to go after, so I did." In 1958, after larger chain grocery stores had forced the Leprino market to close, the Leprino Foods cheese empire started with $615.

Leprino Foods

Mike Leprino Sr. makes fresh mozzarella balls in the original Leprino Foods store.

The timing couldn't have been better. That same year, the first Pizza Hut opened, in Wichita, Kansas. A year later, Mike and Marian Ilitch opened the first Little Caesars, outside Detroit. Another year went by, and Domino's began delivering pizza, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Frozen pizzas, introduced after soldiers returned home from WWII craving slices, were also gaining popularity. After two years in business, Leprino Foods was delivering 200 pounds of block mozzarella a week to local Italian restaurants.

Leprino realized he needed to learn the science behind making cheese on a mass scale. But with a young daughter at home and another baby on the way, he didn't have time for college. Instead, he hired Lester Kielsmeier, who had run a cheese factory in Wisconsin only to find out that it was sold during his stint in the Air Force during World War II, because his dad believed he'd been killed in action. "When Lester came, I went downtown to the junkyard and I bought a couple bigger cheese vats to make it look like we were really in the business," Leprino says.

Leprino's first coup came in 1968, when Pizza Hut was looking for a supplier that could help it cut costs while standardizing portions. After hearing that shredding 5-pound cheese blocks in the franchises was time-consuming and inconsistent, Leprino Foods started selling frozen, presliced blocks. For the first time, pizza-makers could simply layer a few slices onto each pie.

While Kielsmeier made the cheese, Leprino fixated on efficiency. He quickly realized he was dumping half his raw ingredients into the river in the form of whey, the calcium-rich liquid left over after curds are strained. Inspired by the 1964 World's Fair in New York, Leprino traveled to Japan to meet with scientists using milk proteins derived from whey to help the Japanese population grow taller. More than a half-century later, Leprino Foods remains the largest U.S. exporter of lactose, a by-product of sweet whey, and retains a large market share in Japan.

On the cheese side, Leprino hustled to satisfy Pizza Hut, which went public in 1972 with around 1,000 stores and, at its peak in the 1990s, accounted for 90% of Leprino's sales. Pizza Hut franchises would sometimes wait too long to thaw the presliced mozzarella and reported that their cheese would crumble, so Leprino Foods responded with its first major breakthrough: a preservative mist. The scientists there soon realized that this method allowed them to add flavors such as salted caramel and jalapeño. They could even make a reduced fat "cheddar" by using a mozzarella base and then misting on cheddar flavor and orange food coloring. Leprino Foods' production rose sixteenfold, to 2 million pounds of cheese a week.

Leprino Foods

Mike Leprino Sr. stands in front of the original truck he used to deliver fresh mozzarella to local Denver customers.

Just as his timing ahead of America's pizza boom proved lucky, so did his location in the center of the country. In the 1970s, Wisconsin and New York were producing most of the country's milk, but California's nascent dairy industry often priced milk lower. Leprino had the foresight to engage in some arbitrage, locking California dairy farmers into multi-decade contracts at rates that were often above-market locally but below-market nationally. Over the next two decades, Leprino Foods also signed sweetheart deals with co-ops that eventually became the Dairy Farmers of America, securing a lasting milk supply with the country's largest dairy co-op; the company also purchased and renovated some of the older dairy plants, cutting off the options for competitors who wanted to process milk. As Jerry Graf, a former cheese buyer for Pizza Hut, notes, "Jim was always one step ahead of the game."

LEPRINO'S MOST IMPORTANT innovation, ultimately, was marrying science and sales — a combination that met the needs of the four biggest U.S. pizza chains during a period when they were growing exponentially, launching one of the greatest turf wars in the history of American food.

The first key was something called "Quality Locked Cheese"--shredded and individually frozen portions--which Leprino introduced in 1986. Leprino's competitors, still mostly run by Italian-Americans with strong immigrant roots, sniffed. "They didn't believe that was what should go on top of their grandmother's pizza recipe," says Ed Zimmerman, a 30-year pizza-industry veteran. But the franchise-friendly process quickly became the industry standard, both for consistency and scalability. With a patent in place, Leprino made himself indispensable. Graf left Pizza Hut, which was still growing, for Domino's and brought Leprino's business with him, as that chain surged from 200 outlets in 1978 to 5,000 in 1989. Meanwhile, Little Caesars, with more than 3,000 stores, was growing 25% a year with its deal of "Two great pizzas, one low price." And by 1991, Leprino had become the exclusive supplier for Papa John's, which launched in 1985.

Leprino was able to grow with them all by putting them in silos, granting each company its own specs and then troubleshooting as necessary. "We treat every customer like our only customer," says Mike Durkin, a former Pepsi executive who came on six years ago to run day-to-day operations as president of Leprino Foods. "We don't discuss Papa John's business with Domino's — or anybody else's." Domino's agreed to an exclusive relationship in 1996--the contract was just one page. "It was more of a handshake than it was anything else," recalls Michael Soignet, a former vice president of supply chain at Domino's.

Cody Pickens for Forbes

Leprino Foods' ribbon cheese, which is made at its Greeley, Colorado plant.

When Pizza Hut began using a hotter conveyor oven, Leprino Foods changed the formula so the cheese wouldn't burn at higher temperatures. As delivery-focused Domino's expanded, Leprino's head cheese maker, Lester Kielsmeier, manipulated the product so that it retained its fresh-out-of-the-oven look and taste longer. When Papa John's insisted it wanted cheese without fillers--eschewing a new Leprino product that contained some — the big cheese didn't take it well. "His reflected sense of self is his patents, his business," Papa John's billionaire founder John Schnatter says of Jim Leprino. "That really means a lot to him. When I said I didn't like it, he took it personally." Within two months, Leprino switched Papa John's back to the previous blend. "Jim came at me and said,'It's going to cost you three more cents a pound.' "

Price has long been Leprino's biggest advantage, and a large one since cheese accounts for about 40% of a pizza's cost. Leprino's scale begat better prices, which begat more scale. And that scale also led to cost-saving breakthroughs that Leprino's fragmented competitors could neither catch up with technologically nor fight in patent court. "They are a biotech company that is wrapped inside a food business," Zimmerman says.

For example, in the 1990s, Kielsmeier realized that just as the cheese changed when ingredients were sprayed on at the end, certain additives used early in the process could affect how cheese melts--from how big and how brown the bubbles get to how many are on the top of the pie. On the manufacturing side, Kielsmeier cut down the cheese's aging period from 14 days to just four hours, which multiplied the company's production capabilities while cutting costs significantly.

"I would tell people,'Lester is the man that made me rich,' " Leprino says. Notably, though, Leprino never gave Kielsmeier any equity. While Leprino got rich, Kielsmeier — who came to work every day right until his death at 95 in 2012--would have to content himself with being very well paid.

FOR JAMES LEPRINO, the perks of being a billionaire are relatively muted. Yes, the company owns three private planes — a Gulfstream G450, a Bombardier jet and a small 1980 commuter plane — and his house in Denver's affluent Indian Hills suburb has 11 bedrooms, to go with an 8,000-square-foot vacation home in Scottsdale, Arizona. But he's more likely to pick up a hammer than call a repairman: Leprino, who has been known to operate a forklift at the factory, has also personally bulldozed trees around his Colorado home. A devout Catholic, he goes to church every Sunday and donates to charity anonymously. And the immigrant's son has no intention to retire, ever. "My success is a fairy tale," he says.

Leprino's succession plan is simple: He'll split ownership between his two daughters, Terry, 57, and Gina, 55, who have been on the board for years but won't take day-to-day roles. "I don't want them to be living a corporate life resentfully," Leprino says. And for now he'll continue to ensure that Leprino cheese is on as many American pizzas as possible — as well as Asian and European ones (Leprino has a joint venture with the U.K.'s Glanbia Cheese).

America's fifth-largest pizza chain, the take-and-bake Papa Murphy's, remains in his sights. Cofounder Robert Graham says Leprino visited him at least three times to try to get the company to sign on, selling the technology above all else. "It didn't perform well for our pizza, which is cooked in a home oven," Graham says. "Because of the moisture content, you could see the sauce under the cheese. It evaporated." Yet Leprino executives continue to press.

And while Little Caesars uses other vendors--industry insiders say Leprino isn't exclusive with Little Caesars, in part because the chain's blend uses Muenster cheese, too — Leprino president Mike Durkin predicts that Little Caesars will eventually succumb. "Would we want more? Probably the answer is yes, and it'll come at some point," he says.

Cody Pickens for Forbes

The storage warehouse at Leprino Foods newest plant in Greeley, Colorado.

Meanwhile, Leprino will pursue new markets. Leprino has invested $600 million in a factory in Greeley, Colorado, that specializes in "ribbon cheese" — bulky 2.5-pound blocks that are popular among frozen-pizza companies. It's also created an in-house "innovation studio," designed to ride the coattails of food trends. One creation, Bacio ("kiss" in Italian), is catering to artisanal-pizza-makers by offering mozzarella with a kiss of buffalo milk. It's Leprino Foods' most expensive cheese — and its fastest-growing.

Leprino is also rolling out the company's first direct-to-consumer product, a whey protein powder called Ascent, which will have a dedicated wing at the Greeley facility. While Leprino still produces whey protein as a by-product of making cheese for its clients, Ascent is filtered straight from raw milk to protect key proteins and vitamins that help aid muscle recovery. Leprino hopes that will be an edge in the $6.6 billion-and-growing U.S. protein market.

There is plenty of history to remind Ascent's team of their roots. Ascent's space sits atop the original cheese factory's loading dock and warehouse.

"I remember the first day that we had this set up," says Mike Arnold, who is overseeing Ascent's launch. "Jim Leprino walked in here and was like,'Ah, this reminds me of the old days.'" A new, fractured market, primed to be dominated.

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