Soft Serve Is Here. Sorry: Soft Serve

Some food trends, such as poké, cross the ocean at the speed of a Blackbird jet. Others seem to take the thistle-overgrown mountain path. Soft serve belongs to the latter category. Sorry: soft serve.

Every snack bar in our country has a machine into which a bag of milk powder goes, after which soft serve comes out at the push of a button, then dipped in hundreds-and-thousands or warmed-up chocolate sauce.

Soft serve

But that soft serve is a far cry from what has been the ultimate ice-cream hit in primarily North American hipster eateries for years: artisan-made soft serve in daring flavors and combinations. Soft and creamy, making it the ideal comfort food.

Soft and creamy soft serve is the ideal comfort food.

The best American ice-cream makers have the ‘kid’s ice cream’ on the menu. Christina Tosi, pastry chef at David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants, serves cereal milk soft serve at Chang’s Milk Bar, for example—the name of which is even registered. Yet New York Magazine still wonders when ‘the least serious ice cream, with mainly carnival associations’ will finally receive respect in restaurants, boutique ice-cream shops and bakeries.

Pimp

And that with classics by now such as the Pimp from Big Gay Ice Cream: vanilla with dulce de leche, dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt. And with The Greats, such as Dominique ‘cronut’ Ansel and three-Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park which make artisan soft serve that goes far beyond hipster flavors such as matcha tea, black sesame or activated charcoal. And let’s not forget Jordy Roca of three-Michelin-starred restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, in northern Spain.

This summer, gourmet soft serve has also cautiously landed in the Netherlands. Amsterdam coffee roaster Lot61 serves espresso soft serve on hot days. And eclectic restaurant Rosie’s in Amsterdam, inspired by Japan and New York’s Momofuku Milk Bar, serves five different freshly churned flavors for dessert. From dulce de leche to white peach with olive oil and sea salt.

But the soft serve pioneer is Mario Barrios, head of pastry at the Ron Blaauw group. Since mid-July, he has been serving bizarre soft-serve creations at his pop-up Mario’s Freaky Icebar in hot dog restaurant The Fat Dog.

Soft serve is softer, warmer and less fatty than ice cream.

Mario: ‘The difference between soft serve and ice cream is the texture and temperature. Soft serve is softer, airier and less cold—-4 °C versus -15 °C—and therefore more genuine comfort food. Its fat content is also lower: 3–6% versus 10–15%. To me, soft serve is a dessert, because the sauces and toppings allow me to play with contrasts and textures.’

Mario’s two basic flavors are currently chocolate and passion fruit–buttermilk, but soon they will be corn and vanilla. Mario: ‘I think it’s fantastic that Rosie’s serves soft serve as a dessert. I hope many more restaurants start doing that.’

Mario’s Freaky Icebar at The Fat Dog Amsterdam until October 2017, and in 2018 (hopefully) at a permanent location.
Rosie’s, Rozengracht 214a Amsterdam.

Image: Marjan Ippel