A group of celebrities including Professor Green and Heston Blumenthal have shown they are full of the milk of human kindness by allowing researchers to produce a selection of “unique” cheeses made with bacteria taken from their own skin.
The strong-stomached research team also enlisted the help of Blur bassist Alex James, former Great British Bake Off contestant and food writer Ruby Tandoh and Madness frontman Suggs to participate in its “human cheese” endeavour.
Named “Selfmade”, the project began with biodesigner Helene Steiner and her team taking samples of skin from areas including the armpits, toes, belly button and nostrils of their high-profile subjects.
The team grew starter cultures that were then combined with fresh, pasteurized milk to create five human cheeses.
They have been maturing for months, and the result is five “unique microbial portraits” in the form of a semi-hard Comté cheese courtesy of Blumenthal, a hard crumbly Cheshire cheese (James), a creamy mozzarella (Professor Green), a Stilton (Tandoh) and a Cheddar (Suggs).