Challenging cheese

If you've ever baked with a cake mix, you're familiar with the work of Daniel Lemke. A chemist, he created the emulsifier, or stabilizer, that makes that mix foolproof. He also has patents for emulsifiers in snacks, bio diesel in low-grade fats, and antistatic agents in dryer sheets.
But for a long time, he couldn't make cheese. "I understood the chemistry, but I had tried cheese and couldn't do it," he says. "Cheese is like wine. People are really particular about it. So cheesemaking became a personal challenge for me, a way to play with the proteins to change the mouth feel and the texture, and to find methods to enhance flavor."