America’s Most Iconic Ice Cream — with Tyler Malek of Salt & Straw

On the podcast, I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Tyler Malek, co-founder and head ice cream maker at Salt & Straw. Alongside his cousin Kim Malek, Tyler helped grow Salt & Straw from a humble pushcart in Portland, Oregon (despite neither having made ice cream before) into one of the country’s most beloved and inventive ice cream brands.

Known for joyfully unexpected flavors and a rotating monthly series that keeps fans coming back for more, Salt & Straw is a celebration of creativity, community, and craftsmanship. With over 13 years of ice cream-making experience, Tyler recently released a new cookbook, Salt & Straw: America’s Most Iconic Ice Cream, to bring that same spirit into our home kitchens.

In this episode, we talk about the science behind flavor creation, tips for making ice cream at home, and how ice cream can spark conversation, connection, and creativity.

Listen to the full episode or keep reading for some of the highlights from our conversation.

How did you get started making ice cream?

I learned how to cook from my grandmother—she never used a recipe card, just cooked everything from memory. One of my earliest kitchen memories is learning to make Swedish pancakes on my own at age four or five. It was a rite of passage in our family. Years later, when we started Salt & Straw, I wanted to use her almond brittle recipe in a flavor. I kept asking her for the exact measurements, and she’d say things like “a pinch of this” and eventually I realized there were no recipes. I have since transcribed many of her recipes and refined them, but there’s something about knowing the spirit of the recipe that adds a special magic.

In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that I’d end up making ice cream. But my path here was anything but straightforward. I studied Mandarin and business in college and planned on a career in politics or international finance. Then my stepdad passed away, and I felt this deep need to reconnect and bring my family together. I started cooking for them. I realized that food was my way of showing up, healing, and connecting.

Eventually, I enrolled in culinary school in Portland. My cousin Kim had just started Salt & Straw there, and I convinced her to let me join—even though I’d never made ice cream before. But the moment I started, I knew I’d found it. “In retrospect, it is obvious that I love making ice cream. For me, it is the greatest career in the universe.”

There’s nothing else like it. Ice cream is the one food where people can taste the entire menu—flavors ranging from bone marrow to cookie dough—and it invites curiosity, joy, and conversation. That sense of play and connection is why I keep coming back every day.

Tell us more about your new book, America’s Most Iconic Ice Cream

At its heart, this book is all about ingredients. It’s a deep dive into the building blocks of flavor—what I like to call the ultimate food nerd’s guide to pastry fundamentals. I fell in love with this idea years ago, when I was in culinary school during the day and making ice cream in our commissary kitchen at night.

One day, our pastry instructor used coffee extract to make tiramisu, and in between classes, I’d stop by Stumptown Coffee, where they were hosting coffee cuppings. That contrast hit me hard: culinary school treated coffee like a flavor, while Stumptown treated it like an ingredient. That distinction changed everything.

Once you start seeing ingredients—like coffee, vanilla, or chocolate—not as single flavors but as vast, dynamic spectrums, you open up a world of possibilities. Coffee, for example, can be bold and nostalgic or delicate and floral, depending on how it’s sourced and prepared. That idea shaped the entire book.

Each chapter explores one of the 10 most iconic ice cream flavors—like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, matcha, or pistachio—and explains why these flavors remain so popular. From there, I walk you through how to make them, break them down scientifically, and riff on them to create new, unforgettable flavors at home—just like we do at Salt & Straw.

Learn more

Listen to the full podcast episode with Tyler here. You can learn more about Salt & Straw on their website saltandstraw.com, find the new book available online and at many local bookstores, and catch Tyler on book tour this summer. You can also follow them on Instagram @SaltandStraw.

Salt & Straw: America’s Most Iconic Ice Creams, Classic Flavors and Creative Riffs

by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode
(Clarkson Potter, 2025)

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