A Sweet History's Substack Debut

Who I Am, Why I do What I do, and What's This All About

Hello to new and old friends,

I started A Sweet History almost a decade ago in Baltimore, Maryland after my friend Krystal asked me, “Why can’t you combine your two passions together? Why not make ice cream inspired by history?”

Since that faithful night (it was actually Valentine’s Day) in 2017, I have created 283 unique ice cream flavors inspired by everything Ancient Greek poets to 20th century surrealist art. My first flavor was a take on a recipe by James Hemings who was the Chef de Cuisine for Thomas Jefferson and my latest flavor was inspired by the 2001 jukebox musical movie, Moulin Rouge.

In those 9 years, I graduated with my masters in gastronomy from Boston University (my thesis was on 19th c. landscapes of ice cream consumption), I moved from Baltimore to Boston to New York, I spent some lovely time home in New Mexico, I participated in artist residencies, and I traveled and sampled wonderful ice cream from places like Istanbul, Turkey and Udine, Italy. I became a food tour guide, a barista, a nanny, a social media manager for an ice cream shop, and a bartender. And I also presented academic papers and posters about my ice cream at food studies conferences, a design conference, and a women’s studies’ conference (and in a couple months I’ll be presenting at a Popular Culture conference). Lastly, I started a podcast with my cousin to explore my newest passion, vampires. All along, I continued to test myself and the medium of ice cream, producing out-there flavors that told stories I wanted more people talking about. I experimented with everything from pink peppercorn to pig’s blood and from sea urchin to sauerkraut.

If you are unfamiliar with what I do, let me share a little bit more about my process— I come from a history background and research is one of my favorite things to do, but also crucial to A Sweet History. Whether the flavor is inspired by a story I am familiar with or something I’ve just learned about, I dive deep into the research, pulling out ingredients, flavor profiles, colors, and textures, which I weave together in a composed dessert. I view ice cream as my artistic medium, as a storytelling device, as an educational tool, and as my creative outlet. Since it is a universal beloved treat, ice cream can connect tasters to the past, to new ideas, and to interesting discussions. It can introduce people to exciting flavors, unfamiliar ingredients, and to further exploring history and art. Whether it is consumed or considered theoretically, ice cream opens viewers up to more dimensions of the story.

As a historian who understands subjects so much better if I can connect them to food or art, I am a firm believer in the importance of popular history, performance art, and interdisciplinary study. As you can imagine, ice cream is a difficult medium to present in traditional art-world spaces, but I am determined to find a way. Living in New York City, I have also hit roadblocks when it comes to selling my ice cream: 1) kitchen spaces are astronomically expensive, 2) my personal kitchen is very small, 3) the flavors are expensive to produce. I am searching for ways to bring A Sweet History more into the world and have some ideas in the works including starting this Substack.

I hope you will continue to follow along! If you are looking for experimental ice cream recipes, consider joining as a paid subscriber.