Published!

I couldn't have been more thrilled to create a flavor for the the food 'zine, Runcible Spoon! This issue, "MAD SCIENCE," my recipe for Smoke and Fire ice cream is featured alongside Washington City Paper contributor Sam Hiersteiner's recipe for homecured bacon, an interview with Sam Bompas of UK food installation duo Bompas & Parr, and a memoir of cooking with booze by NPR producer Elisa Barclay.

Playing on the notion of hot and cold, salty and sweet, I created Smoke and Fire ice cream: Chipotle smoked salt in silky chocolate five spice. I drew this picture to accompany my creation.

Some say it's my best flavor combination ever! Sounds like the work of a mad scientist...

You can purchase a copy of Runcible Spoon here.

Cardamom Black Pepper

Cardamom is perhaps best known in because of its addition to Chai drinks and Indian food. It is native to the monsoon forests of India and Sri Lanka, but is cultivated throughout tropical Asia.

The unique, delicate cardamom flavor jump started my imagination into creating new a ice cream flavor. I steeped the green cardamom pods in the warm cream to enhance the vanilla bean flavor. I added black pepper for a surprise texture and color, and to cut a bit of the sweetness.



Cardamom is believed to have been brought from India to Greece by one of Alexander the Great's soldiers in the fourth century BC, where it was used in both medicinal as well as culinary concoctions. In the ninth century, the Vikings took it from Constantinople to Scandinavia, where it's still a fragrant favourite in baking and even in some versions of pickled herring. In southern Florida, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii it can be grown outdoors as a perennial plant.