Plenty of consumers, even at the foodie end of the spectrum, love American cheese for its nostalgia and comfort, but the lowbrow grocery staple was ripe for a thoughtful revamp, Greenspan said.

It is, after all, a $70 million niche market with few entrenched players outside of Kraft, whose label reads “pasteurized prepared cheese product.” For legal reasons, it can’t be called American cheese—it’s made mostly of whey, skim milk and preservatives.

“If I can get 1%—or less than 1%—of the market, I get a yellow-colored yacht called the S.S. Melty,” Greenspan said. “Which would be great.”