Hold The Cone: Irresistible Ice Cream With Marc Murphy

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If you scream for ice cream, treat yourself to this episode of Food 360, where host Marc Murphy talks to ice cream experts Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith of Ample Hills Creamery about how to make delicious ice cream, their creamery’s success story, and their favorite flavors. He also talks with fellow Chopped judge and chef Scott Conant about the differences between ice cream and gelato, the economics of serving desserts in a restaurant (“I looked at that pastry department, and I just said, ‘We are losing money every time somebody orders a dessert,’” Scott says), and more. Grab a pint for this one, before your cravings get uncontrollable. 

Marc first sits down with Ample Hills founders Jackie and Brian, who used to make ice cream just for fun until Brian was having struggles with work. They decided to open an ice cream store, making 130 gallons. They ran out within four days. Now, Ample Hills has been named the best ice cream in America, and they have multiple locations in the United States, as well as high-profile partnerships with Marvel, Disney, and Star Wars for specialty flavors. “Bob Iger, the CEO [of Disney]...ordered ice cream one day, just happened to order it online...Maybe two or three days later he emailed me and just said, ‘Hey, I love your ice cream. If there’s anything at all I can do to help, let me know,’” Brian says, laughing. “So it was just one of those things that dropped out of the universe.” 

Ice cream really took off as a sweet treat around the turn of the century, thanks to advances in refrigeration as well as the introduction of the ice cream cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. “Ice cream then became a much more popular pedestrian enterprise, as opposed to a product of the wealthy,” Brian explains. Consumption rose even higher after Prohibition, because “the bars closed down...and so the American populace flooded to soda fountains and getting phosphates and ice cream.” 

Woman sitting at lunch counter

So that's the story of ice cream as “an American concept,” as Brian calls it, but Marc’s next guest, Scott, stops by to fill us in on “ice cream’s Italian cousin, gelato,” Marc says. “The eggs is really the main thing about it, right?” Scott agrees, saying, “The eggs, the cream, and I think the most important aspect is the temperature...it’s not overly frozen, and I think that palatability is really the key.” Both Marc and Scott swap stories about incredible gelatos they’ve had in Italy. Marc remembers that in Sicily, the gelato was served in bread, “in a little panino. It’s a brioche dough, and they cut in half...and you eat it like a sandwich,” he says. “Somebody explained to me, because it’s so hot in Sicily, it’ll melt. If it’s in the bread, it’ll absorb it, and you can eat the whole thing.” Scott’s tried it, with ground espresso beans sprinkled on top, and he remembers it well: “It’s so good,” he enthuses. 

Join Marc, Scott, Jackie, and Brian to learn what Scott means about “breathing” flavors, how he always wanted to be a plumber but couldn’t get the grades for it, why hand-cranked ice cream is the way to go, and the one flavor that flopped in Ample Hills’ kitchen, on this episode of Food 360

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