Ryan Gamperi, owner of Michael’s Grill & Salad Bar of Highland Park, Ill., noticed that after the restaurant used a specific melting cheese for menu items for 45 years, it wasn’t melting as it originally had.

Confused, he reached out to the manufacturer directly and they informed him they’d modified their recipe. Gamperl found this modification compromised his menu items, so he sought out to develop something better.

Gamperl headed to Mar’s Cheese Castle in Kenosha, Wis., to find a temporary solution to his melting cheese problem as the current option was not going to fly with his customers. Through Mar’s, he found a manufacturer that was willing to work with him on a recipe specific for melting. After many tweaks over several months that included adding more cheddar, trying different whey proteins, testing for creaminess and more, they found themselves serving their guests with their very own premium melting cheese.

"We kept tweaking the recipe, more cheddar, try this whey protein and that whey protein. What will be creamiest? We solved our problem and by the spring of 2024 we were serving our guests with our very own premium melting cheese. The feedback was incredible, and the most common response was, 'you should sell this to take home!' After hearing the feedback and knowing that anyone who continued to use the old product that we used to heat was still facing problems, we knew we needed to share this with everyone," Gamperi stated. "We are thrilled to bring to market Michael’s Premium Melting Cheese. This product goes on our fries, our burgers, our beef, our baked potatoes, and our chilli cheese dog. But it’s so much more versatile. This product is great on a cracker, easy to spread and enjoy its creamy, soft, rich flavor. Smear it on your toast to make a sandwich, melt it into your noodles for a high-quality mac n cheese. We hope you enjoy it."