15-09-2014
A child in front of two Brrr, the ice cream machines invented by Robyn Sue Fisher: they use liquid nitrogen
There’s a queue, at Smitten. This is no news: it is often the case, every day. The people from San Francisco wait for their turn, it’s a question of a few minutes: you get to the register, order and wait the 90 seconds that are more or less necessary for the chosen flavour to be prepared live, in front of one’s eyes. Smitten is an ice cream shop, one of the first in the world that only uses liquid nitrogen to prepare ice creams. Remember those slightly crazy chefs who, a few years ago, in order to surprise their guests would open a small tank containing N2 and, after a little whisking in a performance with cold vapours, would serve a 2.0 ice cream? The future has arrived, on 432 Octavia Street. Innovation becomes a daily matter, avantgarde turns into normality.
The success of Smitten made a lot of noise, in the United States. The media covered it: Cnn, Wired, Huffington Post, Newsweek, the latest was Time Magazine, last month. According to Vogue, this is "certainly the freshest, if not the best, ice cream on earth". A correct judgement: everything here is made-to-order, on the spot, each portion is prepared when the client orders it at the register, this is why it is only possible to taste a single flavour, among the few available, four, the same number of the “Brrr” machines.
Smitten on 432 Octavia Street, San Francisco: it a converted container
The beautiful and resourceful Robyn Sue Fisher a few years ago, when she was selling her “nitrogen ice creams” in the streets, with a Brrr mounted on the wagon
Her ice creams have no preservatives or stabilisers: products are eaten on the spot, and it is also necessary to use natural raw materials, with no emulsifiers because nitrogen would make the end product gluey. A few flavours, in rotation, among around 20 that were studied with chef Robyn Lenzi: “salted caramel” and “Tcho 60,5% chocolate” (Tcho is a small local chocolate producer) are delicious. There are some peculiar, seasonal ones: “olive oil with lavender shortbread”, “Earl Grey tea with milk chocolate”, “strawberries with balsamic vinegar”. This format works wonders, it already has imitators on the opposite coast (ice cream shop Chill-N, in Florida). When will it cross the ocean?
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief