5 Minutes With… Ice Cream Innovator Tyler Malek

As the co-founder and official Head Ice Cream Innovator of Portland, Oregon-based Salt & Straw – one of the most successful artisan ice cream outfits in the world – Tyler Malek has been credited with inventing more than 1,500 original ice cream flavours. But first, he had to reinvent himself.

Nearly 15 years ago, a 23-year-old Tyler had been working (ineffectively, he admits) as a car salesman, when he decided to make a change. He approached his cousin, Kim Malek, about letting him join her new ice cream business as the head ice cream maker – a bold move for a guy who had never once made ice cream. Undeterred by his lack of experience, Tyler headed to a second-hand store and bought four ice cream makers for a grand total of 16 dollars. Within a week, he’d come up with 30 brand new flavour recipes. Kim agreed to give him a chance, and the rest is frozen dessert history.

Today, Salt & Straw is known for their small-batch ice creams available in a constantly expanding range of creative flavour combinations. Always gourmet, never gimmicky, each new variety – whether Pear and Blue Cheese or Panther Coffee Tres Leches – is designed not to raise eyebrows but to awaken palates, showcasing painstakingly sourced products and elevating each ingredient to its full potential.

Even as the company has branched out to more than 40 locations across seven US states, Salt & Straw has maintained its community-first commitment to working with local artisans, farmers and producers in sourcing top-notch ingredients that are, where possible, organic and sustainable.

Now, after nearly 15 years of experimentation, exploration and expansion, flavour guru Tyler has ventured into the one territory he’d been avoiding: the classics.

In his new book, America’s Most Iconic Ice Creams, co-authored with James Beard Award-winning food writer JJ Goode, Tyler goes back to the beloved basics, sharing his ultimate recipes for ten of America’s favourite ice cream flavours, from chocolate and vanilla to cookie dough and coffee. Each flavour is accompanied by Tyler’s own tips, notes and anecdotes, not to mention – in true Salt & Straw Fashion – a few ingenious riffs on the original recipes.

Upon the release of the book, and just in time for ice cream season, we chat with Tyler about his ice cream memories and flavour inspirations – and get his recipe for a luxuriant French vanilla ice cream that’s anything but boring.

Amex Essentials: What is your earliest memory of ice cream?

Tyler Malek: One of the first recipes I ever invented, when I was about eight years old, was a warm Grape-Nuts ice cream sundae. Pour hot milk over Grape-Nut cereal, let it get soft and pudding-like, add a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. I like to think that was the launch of my ice cream career.

When did you know, once and for all, that making artisanal ice cream was your calling?

We opened our first ice cream cart in the summer of 2011, and I fell in love with making ice cream. It allows for a creative freedom that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the food world, and to me, it’s the perfect platform for conveying interesting and important food stories.

One of Salt & Straw’s most defining features is its rotating menu of unique ice cream flavours incorporating locally sourced ingredients. Of the more than 1,500 flavours you’ve invented, which are you most proud of?

Some of my favourite menus are the ice cream flavours that showcase important social causes while still being decadent and approachable. A good example is our Upcycled Foods ice cream series, where we work with some of the most innovative brands in the country to make delicious ice creams using ingredients that otherwise would have been thrown away. Creating a safe space to talk about something so difficult, like food waste and how that leads to food insecurity, is a superpower that ice cream has.

Where do you tend to find your flavour inspiration?

The inspiration always comes from the unique partnerships we find in every city. We typically look for our favourite food artisans, artists and farmers in every city we’re in, and use them to help us learn about the community and local flavours.

Ice-cream-making is both an art and a science. What top tips would you offer to people who would like to try making their own ice cream at home?

The first thing I tell new ice cream makers is to find a great ice cream base recipe. I always think of ice cream like making a good soup – having a great soup stock is the foundation to all soup recipes. In my new book, America’s Most Iconic Ice Creams, we have five different ice cream base recipes, and you could invent an infinite number of creative flavours using just those five.

The book is all about the most generationally beloved scoops across the US. When it comes to classic ice cream flavours, tell us: what is your personal favourite?

Oh this is hard! I picked ten favourites in the book, and even that was difficult. Of all the chapters, vanilla was one of my favourite recipes to write, because – the reality is – vanilla is so commonly considered ‘boring’, even though it’s one of the most complicated and nuanced flavour profiles in the world. It became a fun writing experiment to challenge our readers to see such a ‘boring’ ingredient with new vigour, and to invite them to come up with their own inventive variations on the classic.

Scroll to learn how to make Tyler’s French Vanilla Ice Cream, and get his recipe for Smoked-Cherry Vanilla.

French Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes about 2 pints

3 cups Rich Custard Base*
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon dark molasses (not blackstrap)
¹⁄8 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 vanilla bean

1. In a medium bowl, combine the custard base, vanilla extract, molasses, and salt. Use the tip of a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean lengthwise. Use the knife to scrape the vanilla seeds into the bowl and stir well.

2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and turn on the machine. Churn just until it has the texture of soft serve ice cream, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the machine.

3. Transfer to freezer-safe containers and freeze until firm, at least six hours or for up to three months.

Note: If you really want to go the extra mile, look to blended extracts, which deliver an especially complex and balanced vanilla-y-ness and which good vanilla companies offer with the pride of vintners who make fine Chianti. You can even mix one up yourself. My favourite: one part Mexican vanilla, two parts Bourbon vanilla, and two parts Tahitian vanilla

Smoked-Cherry Vanilla

Makes about 2 pints

2 tablespoons lapsang souchong tea leaves
½ cup preserved Amarena cherries (or Luxardo brand maraschino cherries), plus
2 tablespoons of their syrup
3 cups 17% Butterfat Base**
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Microwave ¼ cup water in a mug until steaming, about 30 seconds. Add the lapsang souchong leaves and steep the tea for 6 minutes. Strain and let cool, discarding the leaves.

2. Chop the cherries into pebble-sized pieces.

3. In the bowl of the ice cream maker, combine the tea, cherries, cherry syrup, ice cream base, and vanilla and turn on the machine. Churn just until it has the texture of soft serve, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the machine.

4. Transfer to freezer-safe containers and freeze until firm, at least six hours or for up to three months.

*The Richest Custard Base Ever
Makes about 3 cups

½ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder
¹⁄8 teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, I’m easy to find!)
1¼ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream, very cold

1. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, milk powder, and xanthan gum.

2. In a medium pot, stir together the whole milk and corn syrup. Add the sugar mixture and egg yolks and whisk vigorously until smooth. Set the pot over medium-low heat and stir constantly with a silicone spatula until the mixture steams, reducing the heat if necessary to prevent a simmer. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spatula, five to seven minutes. Remove the pot from the heat.

3. Add the cold cream and stir well. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least six hours, or for even better texture and flavour, 24 hours. Stir well before using.

4. The base can be further stored in the fridge for up to one week or in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw completely and stir well before using.

**Salt & Straw’s Coveted 17% Butterfat Base
Makes about 3 cups

½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, I’m easy to find!)
1¹⁄³ cups whole milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1¹⁄³ cups heavy cream, very cold

1. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, milk powder, and xanthan gum.

2. In a medium pot, stir together the whole milk and corn syrup. Add the sugar mixture and immediately whisk vigorously until smooth. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring often and reducing the heat if necessary to prevent a simmer, just until the sugar has fully dissolved, about three minutes. 

3. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the cold cream and stir until fully combined.

4. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least six hours, or for even better texture and flavour, 24 hours. Stir well before using.

5. The base can be further stored in the fridge for up to one week or in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw completely and stir well before using.

Recipes reprinted with permission from America’s Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. Copyright © 2025 by Salt & Straw, LLC. Photographs copyright © 2025 by Stephanie Shih. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.