Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Mon, 12 May 2008 13:49:00 GMT
In the June 2008 issue of Food & Wine, Jeni Britton was featured in the magazine’s “Master Cook” section. For those of you who don’t know Jeni, she makes gourmet ice cream in Ohio. Her business is Jeni’s Ice Creams. I’m really glad to have seen her in this prestigious magazine, but not because of its notoriety and her potential fame. Instead because the article, and her recipes included in the article, epitomize the crisis we have currently in the food industry: a crisis of industrial food and sadly, some gourmet as well. It’s the use of unnecessary ingredients, like corn-based sugars, starches, etc. It’s Food Fakery, as Julia might say. Using an ingredient not intended in the use of ice cream, to replicate the smooth texture that real ingredients are meant to provide is sad. We should be angry, or at the very least, upset about this.
In the article, which briefly discusses Jeni’s use of “in-season” produce and “locally pasteurized milk,”* there are included a number of ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet recipes that, according to Food & Wine, took Jeni 75 tries to get right. Hmmmm….I guess she’s been producing her ice creams in massive quantities lately, because if Food & Wine asked me for a recipe for the home cook, I’d just use the one I use now.
In Jeni’s recipes I found the material that really got me heated. She suggests using ingredients like cornstarch, gelatin, and corn syrup in her creations because she doesn’t like the taste of eggs in her ice creams, and also because the gelatin “gives an appealing whipped texture” to the yogurt. Stop the bus! Since when did gourmet belong in the same sentence as factory food??? I am here to prove to all of you that you need none of the above to make incredible, dare I say, healthy ice cream and sorbet. How do I get around the great puzzle that is ice cream making?
Easy. I use real ingredients and let them speak for themselves. In fact, my recipe for french custard contains the same ingredients as Thomas Jefferson’s. He was, after all, the person who introduced ice cream, the ice cream maker, and the vanilla bean to America. As for corn syrup? Yes, there are recipes that I use that call for corn syrup…my solution? I use my homemade simple syrup instead. I combine organic evaporated cane juice and water to form a pure, unadulterated syrup that works as a perfect substitute. Check out my recipe for simple syrup, as well as my recipe for strawberry rhubarb sorbet. I just made some today and it was the best one yet!
Lynsie’s Simple Syrup (use, by weight, as a substitute for corn syrup in any recipe)
2 cups water
1 ½ cups organic cane sugar
optional: a vanilla bean, scraped. (All parts-the caviar (black tiny dots) and the shell-can be added.)
Bring the water and sugar to a boil, whisking occasionally. Boil for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Cool and place in an airtight container. The syrup will keep for up to 3 months in the refrigerator.
–note: this recipe can be doubled, tripled, whatever you like. Just remember, it’s two parts water, 1 ½ parts sugar. To tone down the sweetness of the sugar while maintaining the syrup’s viscosity, add fresh rhubarb juice, 1 tablespoon at a time. To make rhubarb juice, which is much better for the environment than lemons shipped from across the country and world, simply macerate chopped rhubarb with 1 tablespoon salt and three tablespoons sugar. Let sit in the fridge for at least one day and up to three. Remove, blend and strain. Leave the pulp behind and take the juice.
In-season AND Local Virginia Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet
2 ½ cups strawberries, hulled and halved
2 ½ cups fresh rhubarb, chopped
Simple Syrup recipe (yields approximately 2 cups)
Combine all and let sit overnight in the fridge. The next day, blend in a blender or food processor, strain, and freeze juice according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. If you do not have an ice cream maker, freeze this sorbet in popsicle molds, or pour unfrozen sorbet in a container, cover and repeat this process until frozen: freeze for one hour, remove from container and blend, refreeze for one hour, remove from container and blend. Repeat until lighter in color and mostly frozen.
*As an aside, Jeni neither sticks to the use of local, in-season produce nor is she really capable of controlling the pasteurization process of her milk. I know she’s not using in-season, local produce because I receive her email newsletter and in December, her customers were encouraged to purchase ice creams with ingredients like strawberries, figs and cherries, none of which are in-season in Ohio at this time.
Also, regarding her mandate that her milk be “gently pasteurized” according to the article, I really don’t see how she can have any say into how her milk gets pasteurized. We pasteurize our own at Perfect Flavor, which means we know and understand the rules and regulations regarding pasteurization in the state of VA backwards and forwards. Pasteurization is pasteurization. The only difference is what kind of machine is used. At Perfect Flavor, we have a batch pasteurizer, which pasteurizes our milk in small 15 gallon batches for 30 minutes at 145 degrees Fahrenheit. The alternative would be a flash pasteurizer, which pasteurizes milk for two minutes at a temperature of 175 degrees or more. This, in our opinion, damages the milk, so we don’t do it this way, not to mention the fact that using a machine this large would be cost prohibitive to us. For Jeni or anyone else to say, however, that their product is “gently pasteurized” is bending the truth, because what they really mean is that they’re using a batch pasteurizer instead of a flash. Doesn’t it seem unfair as a consumer to be fibbed to?
On one more note of worth, my guess as to the reason why Jeni does not use eggs in her recipe for ice cream is simply because she would have to pasteurize them, and she doesn’t have a pasteurizer. Interestingly enough, in her press kit for the last two or more years she has stated her imminent purchase of a pasteurizer as “news” for the business. Somehow I have a feeling we shouldn’t hold our breaths. It costs A LOT to do things the right way, but for Perfect Flavor, the right way is the only way.
Posted in Business, Ice Cream, Recipes | Tags cream, food, gourmet, ice, industrial, recipe, wine | 2 comments
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:12:00 GMT
A good friend of mine, and a wonderful competitor scout just recently sent me one of famed celeb gossip blogger Perez Hilton’s latest posts.
You’ve Been Warned
It’s about Pinkberry, the very popular froyo (frozen yogurt) chain in Hollywood and beyond. For those of you who know about Perfect Flavor, and most importantly who follow my blogs, you know off the bat that what I’m about to tell you will not come as a surpise.
I do hope, however, to derive some form of shock from those of you who are not quite yet at the Enlightenment stage of the ice cream industry. Perez states that Pinkberry’s product, which was prior to its testing thought to be the healthiest guilty pleasure on the market, has in fact now been found to contain just as many (if not more) hazardous chemicals, corn syrups, and emulsifiers as every other ice cream or "frozen dessert" on the market, that is if you exclude Perfect Flavor, of course.
I guess I’ll just keep on saying it until everyone starts to believe it, but neither ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt nor anything in between needs to have fake stuff in it. Why then, is Perfect Flavor (with its ingredient list of: local cream, local milk, local egg yolks from Polyface Farm’s pastured hens, and organic evaporated cane juice) an oddity, a rarity in the ice cream world?
The answer is simple. Real ingredients cost more. I crack 224 eggs for each batch of ice cream base. The process of pasteurizing the milk within two hours of picking it up at the farm, separating the cream from the skim milk, cracking 200 eggs and creating a custard with all of the above takes no less than two days of work. The labor alone brings our ice cream up to a cost that most ice cream businesses would find prohibitive. But we don’t. We know that the ice creams and sorbets that we offer to the public come with a heaping dose of integrity. We are proud to use four major ingredients and nothing more. So, if you know someone who is searching for real health food, send them to us, because yes, our ice cream is health food!
Posted in Business, Ice Cream | Tags glueberry, pinkberry, pooberry, yuckberry | no comments
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:01:00 GMT
Last night Colin and I visited a Charlottesville restaurant (amazing food & atmosphere!) that we often frequent. This time, the visit was for both pleasure and business. Last week the restaurant had shown interest in our ice cream, so last night we brought them an assortment of different flavors to try out. Flavors that I just can’t seem to keep on the shelf these days, like: Salty Caramel, Hint-o-Mint Chocolate Sorbet, Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla, and my current favorite, Hibiscus Ginger Sorbet. As always, it was tough for me to so willingly hand over my little creations. I do realize that I’m in the business of making food, which by definition means that I both give it away and that its existence is fleeting. However, the way I create my ice cream is much the same as the way an artist creates art. A part of me goes into what I make. I remember the smell and smoothness of the caramel, the freshly toasted almonds, and the warm snuggly aroma of the vanilla beans as they steep in custard.
Let’s be honest: I was nervous. Upon finishing our dinner, we approached the staff and owner, asking them what they thought. I was surprised, relieved, confused, and ecstatic by their response. They rejected our ice cream, but not for the reason you might think. It was too good. They were flattered to have been given the chance to sample it, but they were adament about the fact that it just wasn’t a good fit for them. The price is too high for what they’re accustomed to paying, and the quality of the ingredients were a dream…that they couldn’t afford. Did they want to carry our ice cream? Most definitely, they just couldn’t do it.
I was bummed, until I heard their next bit of advice…
The owner said, matter-of-factly, that we were shooting way too low. Instead, we should skip all the bs and go straight to The Inn at Little Washington, The Greenbrier Hotel, and Citronelle in DC. That’s where our ice cream belongs. I agree. It’s nice (and scary) to know that something you make is just as good to someone else as it is to its creator. I am proud to make very fine ice cream, and I can’t wait to make more. Hibiscus Ginger Sorbet, here I come. Watch me on the webcam today, as I make this sorbet, chocolate covered bon bons, and homemade marshmallows…
Posted in Business, Ice Cream | Tags cream, ice, rejection, wholesale | no comments
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:08:00 GMT
Imagine that! Can something be short in duration, size, quantity, but be sweet, enjoyable, and worth living for, too? Of course it can.
I've had some amazing people walk into my shop over the last two weeks since opening my doors. People like Elizabeth Massie, whose enthusiasm at the prospect of supporting art and culture through the act of eating is hopefully as contagious as the black plague! Yes, the ice cream I make is expensive compared to all other brands. Could the reason for this be that it is also different from everything else out there? Is it possible that my ice cream's sole purpose of existence is to educate, or re-educate people, rather, on the act of enjoyment in simple, deluxe pleasures?
A lot of people walk through my doors and gasp literally out loud at the relatively small serving sizes I offer and their related prices. How much is it worth to be fulfilled physically and mentally by something as simple as food?
In France, Italy and especially India food is seen as a healing resource. Something to be celebrated, enjoyed, and worshiped. It is well worth the price for a high quality/high cost food delicacy. For some sad reason, we have lost that idea here. It shouldn't be about how big, how much. It should be about what, where, when, how, why. What is it I'm about to eat, where did it come from, when was it made, how was it created, and most importantly: why?
I make my ice cream because I want desperately to offer something that is simple, pure, healthy, delicious and good for everything and everyone it involves. So, is it worth spending your money on something that feeds your body, soul, and the earth? I think so.
Besides, what could be better than sitting outside on a warm Spring day, savoring a delightfully sized portion of bittersweet chocolate gelato? mmmmmm.....
Posted in Business, Ice Cream, Sustainability | no comments
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:02:00 GMT
When one sees the term, "frozen dessert," it is only safe to imagine that ice cream springs to mind. What else is ice cream, exactly, but a frozen dessert? Precisely. Not to sound to conspiracy-like, but that's what THEY want you to think.
Today Colin and I were walking in the grocery store, and not for the first time, were astounded at how many frozen dessert products were on the shelves of the supposed ice cream section. We had to search high and low to find a container bearing the name ice cream. The companies that sell frozen desserts can include pictures of ice cream, hints and clues that the product's interior is made of ice cream-the only thing they can't do is right out print it on their labeling.
For those of you who do not know, ice cream can only be named ice cream if it has milk, an emulsifier (in our case, eggs, in sad cases-lecithin, etc.), and sugar. Oh yeah, and it has to have at least 10% butterfat in it. Not only is including 10% butterfat expensive (and better), but since a lot of ice cream brands don't even use many real ingredients anyway-it's easier to make due with what they can, and revert to the now common brand of frozen dessert.
For those of you watching your weight, I would many times over advise you to consume real ice cream over fake frozen desserts. So go ahead, don't be shy! Eat our ice cream and feel good about yourself.
Perfect Flavor
Posted in Ice Cream
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:02:00 GMT
Yes, that's right. We're talking ice cream cake. Everyone's favorite-right? It's mine for sure. I remember walking into Baskin-Robbins when I was a little girl, drooling over their ice cream cakes in that little squatty freezer against the wall. I remember my Dairy Queen days in high school, always begging for my parents to return home on my birthday with an DQ ice cream cake in tow. Even Carvel cakes remind me of late-night college runs to the Wal*Mart. oh...do I ever remember those nights...I think I'm still carrying those reminders on my waistline!=)
But what makes these cakes so good? I wondered this myself, since considering the knowledge that I put to good use with my family AND Perfect Flavor, my question has always been: How do they DO it?? Surely that icing can't be buttercream, or seven-minute frosting, or classic white-BECAUSE when frozen, these icings actually harden, or as we professionals like to say, they freeze. And what about that decadent and delicious, yet somewhat questionable choco-interior? What is that stuff? Yes, one thing it is is delicious...but I surely can't think of any way to replicate that consistency other than to pour in globs of corn syrup and emulsifiers!
So with all of this in mind, (and also after reading the frightening Carvel Cake ingredient label to Colin's daughter, Kate, and getting an equally frightening response) I decided to set off on my own ice cream cake-making quest. And-surprise, surprise, sticking to my guns when it came to natural food and ingredients, not to mention natural cooking methods, I created a smash hit. The following is a recipe for "Once, Twice, Three Times A Chocolate Ice Cream Cake". I hope you enjoy this as much as my family did!
Ice Cream Cake Recipe
Ice Cream: Chocolate Mousse
- 4 organic egg yolks
- 3/4 cup granulated organic sugar
- 1/4 cup organic/local whole milk
- 6 ounces organic Dagoba chocolate chips
- 4 tablespoons strong FTC (Fair Trade Certified, such as Larry's Beans) brewed coffee
- 1 1/2 sticks organic, unsalted butter, cubed
- 4 organic egg whites
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 tablespoon organic sugar
1. Heat milk in medium saucepan til hot but not boiling
2. Beat egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy
3. Brew coffee and pour over chocolate chips while still hot. Let sit in a bowl for at least 7 minutes, then whisk briskly until smooth and combined.
4. Place choco-coffee mixture in bowl over simmering water in a saucepan (a faux-double boiler trick...). Add cubed butter bit by bit into choco-coffee mix until smooth. Combine this mix with the egg yolk mix. Remove bowl from heat.
5. Beat egg whites and salt in an impeccably clean stainless steel or copper bowl until soft peaks form (under 2 minutes). Add sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.
6. Fold egg whites into choco-coffee mix 1/3rd at a time until combined. Remember that white streaks and lumps are just fine: they'll make your mousse ice cream even fluffier!
7. Place the mousse into a freezer-safe container and place in the fridge. Yes, that's right, the fridge.
Devil's Food Cake
- 4 ounces organic dark Dagoba chocolate
- 1 1/4 cups organic flour (King Arthur is great!)
- 1/4 cup organic Dagoba cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder OR better yet, cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup homemade or organic whole milk yogurt OR sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
- 4 organic eggs, 1 organic egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon cognac
- 1 tablespoon organic pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 sticks organic, unsalted butter @ room temp
1. Combine all dry ingredients and set aside in an easy-pour bowl.
2. Combine yogurt, cognac, vanilla in another easy-pour bowl.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Add butter and beat some more!
4. Heat milk until hot and pour over chocolate chips. Follow same method as above for mousse.
5. Combine milk-choco mix to wet ingredient mix. Add 1 cup wet ingredients followed by 1 cup dry ingredients into egg mixture in mixing bowl, alternating wet/dry until each are gone and incorporated into your insta-cake mixture. Fold in milk-choco mix until blended.
6. Pour batter into two 9-inch cake pans, bake until firm in a 350 degree F oven. To test "doneness," insert a toothpick into the center of each cake. If the pick comes out dry but with a few castaways at the tip-it's DONE!
7. Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes, then pop it out onto a cooling rack or clean countertop until completely cool. If you prefer that your cake does NOT stick to your pan, make sure it's nonstick, buttered and floured prior to baking-one can never be too safe when it comes to cake! Also, if you want to hurry up your cake-cooling process, place the cake unwrapped in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Ice Cream Cake Assembly TIME...
1. Take your cake and slice each cake layer in half with a serrated knife so that you're left with 4 layers where once there were two.
2. Place your first layer on a parchment/foil lined plate or serving dish. Place a dollop of mousse in the center and spread lightly out to the edges. Repeat until your cake is entirely assembled.
If you have leftover mousse, use to ice your finished product. Also, I suggest a nice chocolate ganache or even an easy chocolate buttercream frosting, with cognac incorporated, of course. Once your beauty is frosted, pop her in the freezer until stiff to the touch (about an hour).
Serve to your favorite people!
***A few notes...
~to add some flair (as if) to your cake, dust the top with cacao powder OR hot chocolate mix. You could even cut out a stencil of your loved one's name or favorite flower, place the paper stencil over top the cake, then dust! This will leave a beautiful artistic addition as well as a very personal touch to your work.
~remember, for the mousse you can substitute orange juice or cognac for coffee if preferred. (Each liquid has roughly the same effect.) This does not hold true for the cake, which needs the cognac to stay moist in the freezer. (Alcohol freezes at a lower temp than the average freezer goes.)
Posted in Ice Cream
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:07:00 GMT
As I lay in bed, mostly horizontal save my neck and head, which are uncomfortably poised upward by two large pillows, I am arduously attempting to read a book that has taken me eight months to open. Trying to read between the small gray legs and occasional tail swivel of my wonderfully nosy cat, Annabelle, I'm finding myself caught deeper and deeper in the realization that my life has quite remarkably mirrored the life of Ruth Reichl, at least up to this point, anyway.
I'm reading Reichl's 1998 book (memoirs more like) "Tender at the Bone." Colin bought it when we first met, perhaps as a way to emphasize his love for cooking to me. However, his great enthusiasm, and talent, became blatantly clear upon our very first rendez-vous in the kitchen. I, of course, only used the book (that Colin managed to get half-way through) as a means for leaving discreet love notes for him. And, might I add, it did come in quite handy. Little did I know that while sick in bed, recovering from 20 Thanksgiving house guests and a bad cold, I would sit down to finally read Reichl's work myself, and by doing so would unlock the mind of yet another food-genius, and what's more, discover a kindred spirit.
I, too, had a Queen (and King) of Mold. I lived and studied in France, and I, too, have had my fair share of close-calls and risky coming-of-age experiences. But most of all, I too garnered my cooking ability and appreciation from an environment that desperately needed a culinary change. From everything stew (everything left-over, that is) to canisters of food years past their due date. I, too, saw a need for change and took the initiative to takeover. Both Reichl's and my motivations stemmed from observing an era of cooks whose repertoire contained any dish that could be made with a can of condensed mushroom soup. I grew up seeing cookbooks like "How to make five-minute meals." In today's world, tacking on an extra 25 minutes doesn't exactly scream, "We've come a long way, baby!" but I guess it's progress, right Ms. Ray?
What happened to our parents? The war? Most likely. When sugar and butter were scarcely being rationed out, industrial food found its loophole and went right through. Now it's taking a lot of us to patch that hole back up. Sitting next to those five-minute meals cookbooks were most likely Betty Crocker, Country Cooking, and Southern Living (at least from where I was looking). But the real question is, why weren't they used? It's because the food of our mother's and father's came from the beginning of the industrial food revolution. Most people, Reichl aside, are still inspired by this dried food from a box mentality. However, it's no surprise that Reichl had the foresight to see food as a gateway to many other things in life. Reichl, now the Editor-In-Chief of Gourmet Magazine is helping to lead and make way for the real food revolution, and I am proud both to understand her background and move forward with her in our future.
Posted in Business, Ice Cream, Paris
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:40:00 GMT
Et Voila! Tout peut arriver (anything can happen) as the French so lovingly chant! One year, and many ice cream and pastry samples later, you find me now in present day Charlottesville. My goals as an ice-cream heroine are finally coming into form, and thus we begin on this journey, from now on: together. This is the story of Perfect Flavor, both past and present. As the company grows, so too will my experience, my ideas, and most hopefully, my state of mind regarding sustainability. Ah, Sustainability. If it weren't for ice cream, I fear I would never have found an outlet for this battle. But, thankfully, I have, and now it is my job to share with all of you why I am doing what I'm doing, and more importantly, what influenced me to run my business in a way that is economically, environmentally, and humanely sustainable.
As I often like to say, our ice cream is merely a byproduct (no pun intended) of what we actually do here at Perfect Flavor. Ice cream is fun. It brings joy and comfort to many people. It stirs up memories of childhood, of the good old days, of excitement, laughter, summer. That's why I chose to make it in the first place. But I wanted to be a responsible producer. As of a year ago, I thought that meant being responsible to my customers, to my integrity, and to human health in general. At that point, I was under the notion that the best way for me to help spread my ideas of good food habits learned in France was to simply preach about these good habits to those who purchased my ice cream. I still, just as many caterers and small restaurant owners, shopped at the grocery store and at one of those huge bulk food depots we've got floating, or rather squatting, around.
Everything changed upon my move to Charlottesville. Once in the full throws of chefdom, I began to learn that there was much more to one's health than what they consumed physically, or what they digested rather. Charlottesville, a food haven surrounded by vineyards, farms, and subsequently, impeccable restaurants, is a city which has an incredible amount of progressive food knowledge to offer. In its existence, a good part of it preaches sustainability through action. While we still have a Sam's Club, a Wal-Mart, and a Pizza Hut, unlike other cities, you won't find anyone serious about food inside, perhaps outside protesting, yes, but inside? Never. What we have in this city are farmers who care about the land. Citizens who care about their farmers. And Humans who care about the health of those around them. This is what I like to call the sustainability cycle, and I invite you to get on for the long haul.
Sustainability means making choices and actions that strive to be kind to our environment. By being healthy physically, Charlottesvillians practicing sustainable lifestyles choose fresh produce. Fresh produce not from the local gorcery store, but from a local producer at the weekly Farmer's Market. If you were to ask someone in Gulfport, MS what they would reach for if practicing a healthy lifestyle, they would march straight into the frozen foods section and pick a Lean Cuisine! You can't blame them. Asked again if they practiced a sustainable lifestyle, they would question the meaning of the word. We can't poke fingers at our own ignorance. Only, ironically, once an economy is in sturdy standing, can its residents begin to focus on sustainability, even though that's just the reason why the economy became unstable to begin with. Most of us can't afford organic foods. And believe it or not, there are parts of this country that don't carry any organic produce. Now that's not to say that they don't practice sustainability. They just may not be aware of it. In Gulfport, Jimmy may go once a week to the Piggly Wiggly to buy fresh tomatoes. He may buy them because they taste the best, however he doesn't know why. Perhaps a local tomato farmer's cousin manages the store, and therefore buys a portion of his tomato produce from this local farmer. Well-this ain't nothin' new-as Jimmy would say. It doesn't need a certification from the USDA Organic organization to be deemed higher quality. What Jimmy has done is discerned with his very own tastebuds and wallet what we expect organic producers and grocers to do for us. It's almost like: "Don't speak until spoken to." Only, "Don't eat unless told what to." Love that impeccable grammar=)
My point, while at times muddled, is simple. I began to think about the choices I was making everyday. I moved from frozen foods to fresh produce. I then moved from fresh produce to strictly organic produce. And finally, I am transitioning into local produce when possible, and then organic when necessary. My awareness has increasingly become keener and keener. As in Micheal Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the question of what to eat for dinner has increasingly become more complex. My solution in surpassing this literal food crisis is simply to learn as much as I can about what I consume. By doing this, I begin to support local farmers more and more, and therefore act in a way that is conscious and positively effective sustainably speaking. Just by choosing to eat an apple from the Farmer's Market, I have helped strengthen myself, my environment, and my economy.
If I can do all of this just by small and simple actions, I thought to myself, why not try to find other ways to take larger steps forward. So, with this new agenda, the real reason behind Perfect Flavor comes to the surface: Use only local ingredients. When ingredients are needed that cannot be grown locally, then buy from other private distributors and local businesses. If an ingredient still cannot be attained using this method, find the nearest source. Second adendum: Use only biodegradable packaging made from corn, sugar cane, or soy. And thirdly: Keep my promise to the consumer to deliver fresh, handmade, small batch, and healthy ice cream from order #1 to order #100,000 and on.
This is my promise, for if I sacrifice my promise for the sake of profit, I lose not only my battle, but the battle of everyone around me.
Posted in Business, Ice Cream
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:35:00 GMT
One year ago, in June of 2005, I was struck with an idea. Having cooked quite avidly for my family of six for many years, and having returned from my sejour in Paris long enough to have realized its infections upon me, I began to find ways to feed the souls of those around me by first feeding their bellies. Through this release, I discovered how significant a connection I was forging by using my own two hands to create a meal. It was my two hands that felt, prodded, and squeezed the fruit at the market. It was my two hands who paid the price to make this food mine. And finally, it was with my two hands that I prepared this food into something filled with flavor and love. Upon stumbling across this incredible delight, I asked myself-what could be better than doing this all the time?
To create food through love for the sake of nourishment: what a gift. To see the delight spread across the faces of those I fed? This affected me in a way far deeper than I could ever explain. My heart was touched. But the question was this: why were people so happy? What about eating the creation of another brought such satisfaction? A work of art, one could argue, may have the same affect. But still in all my ponderings, I have yet to find such a creation that nourishes the soul both physically and emotionally. This may bring to mind a certain literary term: magical realism. Books use it, movies portray it, I live it, and therefore, so do those who eat my food.
One day in mid-June, I stumbled across a seemingly very old recipe for ice-cream. Being that my three brothers LOVE ice-cream, I decided to try my hand at making a batch. To my surprise, it worked beautifully. From there, I began hearing requests-and incredibly, the whole family was as excited as I was about this new endeavor! I heard vanilla, chocolate banana, cotton candy, and peach cobbler! Blueberry cheesecake, chocolate icing, and peaches and cream. I started experimenting with flavors. And what's more, I started handing out samples to neighbors and friends, as well as taking more and more requests. I began to realize probably one of the most valuable and significant lessons of my life. People not only love ice cream, they love what it symbolizes: family, childhood, celebration, friends, joy. And what's more, given the chance to create their own perfect flavor, the grin spreads wider than before imagined, the heart opens its wings to new reason for love, life, and ceremony. To be able to bring this joy to the lives of people around me, known and unknown, was what I never knew I always needed and wanted. I had found my calling.
With that, I started my fledgling company: Home Ice Cream Company, later known officially as Home Catering Company. With the help of my friends and family, I began taking orders, creating inventive concoctions, and delivering the finished pint of ice-cream personally to those in my community. I went from sampling out my ice-cream at a neighborhood garage sale to catering alumnae events for my alma mater, Sweet Briar College. However, more rapidly than ever expected, or maybe I have my naivete to blame, more orders came in than I could handle. My business sense was not extremely impressive, and I therefore had to leave my business temporarily, putting it on hold until I could garner the skills, equipment, and knowledge necessary to run it properly, the way I wanted. I wanted fresh ingredients, I wanted proper tools, and most importantly, I wanted to provide a product for my clients that held 100% true to my original reasonings for starting this process in the beginning: this was about the food and the people. The result was special, personal, and most of all, nourishing to the mind and body. How could I run a business that would not lose sight of these principals? It had to be built slowly, surely, securely, carefully. My business would not resurface as a live entity until exactly one year later.
On July 27th, one day after my birthday, I moved from Northern Virginia to Charlottesville, Virginia. Still holding quite tightly to my want to form my business and give it wings, I had to sacrifice its onset for a job that would pay steadily and give me the precocious security I needed to live, for the first time, completely on my own. I took two jobs, with babysitting in the evenings on the side. I quickly found myself working 56 hour work weeks, at the very least, in an attempt to just live within my means. At one point, admittedly not my favorite part of the story, I was using change to buy chicken soup at the store, anxiously awaiting my first pay check. I paid for gas $5 at a time, and learned to make my ¼ tank of gas stretch for at least a week at a time. I would walk to the grocery store, 1.5 miles away and buy a box of special K and a gallon of milk, which I made last for a week. It was hard, but not horrible. It was my rite of passage, some have it easier, some not as easy. I didn't complain, I just waited patiently, with my business idea still swimming strongly around in my head.
Once the pay checks started coming in, I began to feel more confident. I began to talk about my idea with others, more so to receive encouragement than to market. I was still unsure if people down here would have the same response as those from my home town. But people seemed to love the idea, so I pushed forward. While my means for making and transporting the ice cream that I made were non-existent, I still experimented for friends willing to come visit me in order to experience their created flavors. On top of this, I made French pastries, cakes, and desserts for apt clients anxious to try my inspirations from Paris. I went on like this, with hope in my heart and faith in my soul-I knew my plan would come to fruition in its own time. However bills, food, and gas began to take precedence to business plans and marketing campaigns.
I was a college graduate, I could find a higher paying job, but I wanted to remain where I was: in touch with real people, creating food and being surrounded by self-proclaimed “foodies” was where I belonged, so I stayed and decided to struggle. From a coffee shop to a kitchen retail store to a bakery I went, building invaluable skills, those whose weight I realize only now: their utter significance in this serendipitous life I now lead.
Posted in Business, Ice Cream
Posted by Lynsie Watkins
Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:34:00 GMT
“My Life in France,” the most recent publication of the biography of Julia Child's life spent in France during the 1950s and early 60s, is a perfect way to begin to describe my love affair with Paris. much like Julia's, my life in France was, in fact, a single life in its own rite. I immersed myself in French culture for one year. I learned a different way to live, to eat, to drink, to see-however, most importantly, I allowed myself to change. By the time I was set to leave my new-found home, I felt more French than I did American. Perhaps that sounds strange, most assuredly for anyone who has never transplanted themselves into a new and different culture. However, to those of you who have had this experience, I do appreciate your empathy.
In essence, even though I had been cooking long before my arrival in France, I can say without a doubt that I learned to cook in France. Why? How? I learned to cook because for the first time in my life, I was introduced to cooking's foundation: real food. Every morning I stepped out of my apartment directly into one of the most favored open air markets in Paris: Le Marche Mouffetard. I watched the farmers and market men (as I called them) pull in at 5 am and begin unloading their trucks. I watched the natural cycle of fruit and vegetable availability in conjunction with the seasons. Everything was ripe, naturally sized (no state-fair pumpkins), and most of all-the taste of everything that I tried was different and better than anything I had ever found at my neighborhood grocery store in the U.S.
As a culture, we are so incredibly numb to the notion of local produce, local availability, even harvest. We are far removed from our farmers and our land. Our produce comes from Iowa, Argentina, Mexico, Madagascar. We never lull over the fact that our fruit is labeled with stickers that say Chile, Fiji, Canada. In France, this does not exist in the way that we know it. Why else are the French so tied to their food? Because they know quite intimately where their food comes from. Their carrots come from a farm next door to where they spent their childhood, their apples from the coast where their Grandmother lives. This intimate connection defies reason for us as Americans. Sure, Great Uncle John farms corn fields in Davenport, Iowa-but do we see his corn in our supermarkets? No, not in Virginia. Probably not even in Iowa. John's corn is sold to processing plants where it is turned into high fructose corn syrup, which is then added to our favorite soda or candy bar, thus evolving quite rapidly from natural food to, as Michael Pollan puts it, industrial food. Undoubtedly, John's corn goes to the Lance cookie and cracker factory, where it is processed and packaged by his cousin Jeff! The way I like to think about it, industrial food is anything that the average person would be unable to create in his/her own kitchen.
None of us have the ingredients or means to produce Snickers bars, Honey Bunches of Oats, Oreos. Hell, most of us can't even make a loaf of bread. What has happened to our culture? When did we lose this precious information? And why have the French maintained it? Industrial food does not only exist in the U.S. It does exist in France, too. I witnessed its use with my very own eyes when I lived with a host family for my first three months in Paris. For dinner, I ate trout that had been frozen in a plastic bag and subsequently boiled (or poached as they liked to put it) in its same protective pouch. To accompany the fish came hollandaise sauce of some kind, also having been boiled in a plastic bag, slit, and poured over my pulpy gray fish and haricots verts from an aluminum can.
To say that industrial food is strictly an American problem is harsh and untrue. I do not mean to poke my finger accusingly at the American public for our uneducated eating habits. I grew up in and am a part of this culture too, and I know why we do what we do. What I do hope to do is open our minds to the possibility that there is a way out. Currently in your very grocery store, approximately 40% of what is sold is industrial, meaning it has been processed using preservatives (partially hydrogenated oils) and has been sweetened using high fructose corn syrup. It has been prepared in huge, unappetizing batches, where the original recipe has been multiplied by 100. It is made by machines, it has trotted and wiggled along conveyor belts, and has sadly only seen the presence of human hands when inspected, for “quality control,” of course. And still, we marvel in this technological majesty. We visit the factories, we go on tours, we watch the PBS and Food Network specials, and still...we eat these products.
When Julia Child was asked to collaborate with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle on her most famous (and first) cookbook entitled “Mastering The Art of French Cooking,” she was refused by three publishing houses in the U.S. Who, they asked, would want to go to the store, locate ingredients "scattered" throughout the store, and return home only to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen when they could just as easily buy dehydrated and processed ingredients in a single box and prepare it in their crockpot or microwave, even, while they got along with their busy day? Who? More like What American? What Julia was experiencing at this time was the obvious shift away from real food that America was taking. While unhappy with it, Julia complied with this notion, which is why still today you can watch her shows or read her cookbooks and find companion recipes to her French ones, designed of course for crock-pots, pressure cookers, and microwaves. Julia was advising on equipment that she didn't even have in France! If you try hard enough, as I believe I do, you can even sense an annoyance in Julia's voice when she takes her aside to deal with those of the American public who, even though they could take time out of their busy schedules to watch her show, still refused to put forth the actual effort to create what it is they were learning about in the first place. The French weren't using these devices, because cooking was still about the food, and no compromise to the integrity of the food they ate would be made.
Once on my own in mon propre apart, I decided, sans cookbook, to allow inspiration to take hold. I prepared meals every night from scratch with food that I had purchased at the market that day. There was no “buying in bulk” Sam's Club visit for me. I purchased what I needed, and appropriately enough, what I could carry. Still today, when shopping at the grocery store in Charlottesville, Va, by myself, I carry a basket and not a cart. Important to note, also, is that grocery carts aren't as big in France as they are in the U.S. In some cases they are double in size in the U.S..
While my abilities as a cook improved, I began taking on more daunting delights. Before I knew it, with the fortunate help of friends and a few choice recipes, I was making bread, pie dough, custard, I even attempted yogurt! And do you want to know the truth? It wasn't as mysterious as my upbringing had urged me to believe, it was actually easy! All I needed was the proper instruction. I needed the methods, the tricks, the advice. Upon my return to the U.S., my creations only became more elaborate. With each new endeavor, I held to my original purpose and inspiration: research a dish or recipe until I traced it to its foundation, its roots. Use the best ingredients in their raw form. However, as fantastic as everything tasted, I was living in Northern Virginia, where the closest I came to an open air market was a Whole Foods. Upon learning of the installation of a Wegman's, it was all I could do to not march straight in and apply for a clerk's position just for the sake of being close to this semblance of a Parisian market. But the truth is that it wasn't a Parisian market. It was a grocery store parading around as a Parisian market. Still, I took what I could get. Then, I moved to Charlottesville.
Posted in Business, Ice Cream, Paris
