How Salt & Straw's head chef found solutions to ice cream's biggest problems

Lucy Copp is a producer for AirTalk, hosted by Larry Mantle, delivering conversations that offer an array of voices and topics.

Published Jun 19, 2025 8:00 AM

Picture of a picnic with ice cream and jam

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From classic vanilla to unbelievable salted chocolate peanut butter. A new Salt & Straw cookbook has it all.

In ice cream, sometimes a simple scoop of vanilla is all you need. And other times, you want the whole kitchen sink of flavors. But, as Salt & Straw chef and co-founder, Tyler Malek, explains in his new cookbook, creativity and invention always start with a good base. The ice cream chain Salt & Straw is known for its outlandish culinary flavors like Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie and Chocolate Chili Crisp Peanut Butter that push the imagination of what ice cream can be, but every flavor, no matter how out of the box, begins with a foundation of the classics: vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate. Today on AirTalk, we talk to master ice cream maker and co-founder of Salt & Straw, Tyler Malek, about his new book Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams. We'll learn how the ice cream is made and how Tyler comes up with some of the wildest flavor pairings.

Ice cream has problems. Big problems. You may not have noticed because, c'mon, it's ice cream. But think about it. Often, the chocolate chips are too waxy, the cookie dough is too frozen, the caramel is not carameling...

Fortunately, Salt & Straw chef and co-founder Tyler Malek sought solutions and you can find them in his new recipe book, Salt & Straw: America's Most Iconic Ice Creams.

He joined Austin Cross on AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news program, to talk about some of the chain's outlandish flavors — Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie, Chocolate Chili Crisp Peanut Butter, and so many more — and how he found solutions over the years to the (we admit, few and far between) drawbacks of 'scream.

The flavor trinity

Take caramel for example. What makes caramel taste so good? Malek says it's not just the combination of salty and sweet. You need a third flavor profile to complete what he calls "the flavor trinity."

"A good caramel is salty, sweet and bitter," he said.

This is a guiding principle in so many of his flavors. Coffee and Love Nuts is a popular one at Salt & Straw. The trinity? Coffee, candy-coated nuts and a little bit of fruitiness.

Cookie dough tune-up

A common problem with cookie dough ice cream? The dough is too dang hard. This is true for other mix-in ingredients.

"You can't just buy cookie dough or brownies off the shelf and put them in ice cream," Malek said. "They're not meant to be frozen."

Ice cream is just so freeing...it's inherently creative.

— Tyler Malek, Salt & Straw head ice cream maker

The first solution? Making all his ingredients in-house so he can tailor them perfectly for the ice cream. Malek makes a concoction of what he calls "edible anti-freeze," which involves specific amounts of salt and sugar to resist the solidification of the cookie dough. The type of sugar you use makes a difference too, he said.

Freckling

If you like chocolate in your ice cream, you might be familiar with the often waxy, crunchy texture of the chocolate chips.

Unleash your creativity, one scoop at a time

A picture of the front cover of an ice cream cookbook

Malek's new book is filled with tips and tricks for ice cream lovers. Want to add potato chips to your ice cream while preserving the essence of the chip? Try coating it in coconut oil to create a barrier and maintain the crunch!

Admittedly, Malek is obsessed with ice cream — the flavor profiles, the science, but also the opportunity to connect with others. People will stop him in the street and suggest flavor ideas to him all the time.

"Ice cream is just so freeing," he said. "It's inherently creative."

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