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Breast Milk is For Babies Not for Chelsea Cheese, Says Breast Feeding Group

By DNAinfo Staff on March 11, 2010 7:14am  | Updated on March 11, 2010 7:05am

Chef Daniel Angerer's maple caramelized pumpkin encrusted cheese with Concord grapes.
Chef Daniel Angerer's maple caramelized pumpkin encrusted cheese with Concord grapes.
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Daniel Angerer

By Nicole Breskin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CHELSEA — Members of La Leche League, a pro-breast-feeding organization, are scolding a Chelsea chef for serving up cheese made from his wife’s breast milk.

“Breast milk is for babies,” said Lorretta McCallister, a spokesperson for the organization. “We’re all about breast milk but for breast-feeding babies — for the baby’s nourishment, not adults.”

Chef Daniel Angerer of Klee Brasserie on 200 Ninth Ave. made headlines this week for taking his cooking to a “whole other level of ‘natural.’

But McCallister said no matter how close the milk resembles cheese from cows, it shouldn’t be distributed or consumed without proper warnings, because it could lead to uncomfortable side effects.

“It’s more of a diarrhetic for adults,” she said. “It could cause bowel problems. We wouldn’t recommend or support breast milk for adults.”

The chef’s publicist, Stephen Hall, assured DNAinfo that consumers of the cheese are fully aware of its contents, and the fact that the product is not pasteurized nor USDA-approved.

“It’s for curiosity seekers,” he said. “Daniel gives a taste to people who really, really want to taste it and know what it is.”

The cheese is not produced or sold out of Klee Brasserie. All tastings are done at Angerer’s home, or cheese can be mailed to customers, Hall said.

The recipe only originated as an "experiment" when the chef’s family had a surplus of “mommy’s milk,” according to Angerer's blog.

As an artist herself, McCallister said she could understand why Angerer would try to push creative boundaries.

“It’s kind of experimental, like frog legs or chocolate-covered ants,” she said. “Chefs are kind of like artists and they want to go for something new and shocking.”

But she said she wouldn't try the cheese unless her life depended on it.

"Knowing all the issues, I wouldn't try it," said McCallister. "Not unless I was sick and it was for some medical reason."