Salt & Straw's Chef Series Collaborates With Top Kitchens In The Country To Explore Philosophies And Ingredients Through Ice Cream

PORTLAND, Ore. (July 2, 2013) -Using Portland's flagship food and drink event Feast Portland as a jumping off point, Salt & Straw asked five participating chefs to collaborate on an ice cream menu that combines their unique cooking styles with the best ingredients that Oregon has to offer. The result is their Feast Portland Chef Series, a set of flavors that capture the spirit of each chef's menu in the one form that everyone loves, ice cream.



The new series will launch this September in celebration of Feast Portland 2013, which takes over downtown Portland Sept. 19-22. In collaboration with chefs they built ties with during Feast Portland 2012, the superstar lineup includes three chefs from Portland: FOOD & WINE Best New Chef Jenn Louis, FOOD & WINE Best New Chef and two time James Beard Foundation award winner Gabe Rucker and FOOD & WINE People's Best New Chef Gregory Gourdet and two from out of town that are participating in this year's festival, FOOD & WINE Best New Chef April Bloomfield and FOOD & WINE Best New Chef and Bravo's Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio.



The five flavors in the Feast-inspired chef collaboration series will be available at Salt & Straw locations and a Chefs Series variety pack will be available for nationwide shipping at www.saltandstraw.com, throughout Sept. Salt & Straw will donate proceeds from the series to the charities associated with Feast, Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon and Share Our Strength.



"Through these collaborations, those who haven't had an opportunity to try these chef's incredible foods first hand in their restaurants as well as their biggest fans have a chance to try their food in a new way," says Tyler Malek, Salt & Straw head ice cream maker. "We're highlighting the chef's menus, ingredients and kitchen philosophies through these ice cream flavors and the results are fun, unique and delicious collaborations that we are excited to share."

Chefs Series Flavors:

Loaded Baked Potato
Michael Voltaggio has blown up the LA food scene with his restaurants, ink. and ink.sack, both opening in 2011 to much critical acclaim; earlier this year he was recently honored by being named one of Food & Wine magazine's Best New Chefs. His cooking has been described as "Modern LA cuisine" using Southern Cali ingredients in shocking ways that explore the outer limits of food. On a playful note, where savory collides with sweet, we have teamed up with Voltaggio to create a baked potato sour cream ice cream that is "loaded" with candies: bacon chocolate crumbs, onion juice caramel and white cheddar cookie dough.


Sweet Corn, Waffle Cones, and Caramel
April Bloomfield is the esteemed, Michelin-starred chef of four restaurants in New York City: The Spotted Pig, The Breslin Bar & Dining Room, The John Dory Oyster Bar, and Salvation Taco. April is inspired by seasonal flavors and the beauty and simplicity of food. She cooks with a delicacy that allows the inherent characteristics of an ingredient to shine. Working with chef Bloomfield on this collaboration, we wanted to use summertime as a thematic starting point. We decided on sweet corn as the foundation to which we added other accents of the season by folding in chocolate covered waffle cones, freckles of salted brown butter, and ribbons of rich vanilla caramel.


Mint Leaves with Sea Urchin Meringues
Jenn Louis has slowly built one of the most prestigious food empires in Portland. At her two restaurants, Lincoln and Sunshine Tavern, she creates menus that celebrate the local bounty in ways that show incredible restraint while working with distinct and bountiful Willamette Valley flavors. For this collaboration with Louis, we are using west-coast harvested s