Courtesy of Humphry Slocombe
California ice cream shop Humphry Slocombe, which opened its first location in San Francisco in 2008, is creating a new and exciting flavor each month this year—but they aren’t doing it alone. The brand, which now has four locations across the Bay Area, is partnering with chefs to create flavors inspired by the foods they love to cook and eat.
“We’ve partnered with various chefs over the years and wanted to dedicate a year to celebrating the ones we really admire and that we knew we would enjoy partnering with,” says co-owner and head pastry chef Jake Godby. “This is a great way to push the boundaries of what ice cream can do.”
To kick off the lineup in January, Hawaii-born chef Ravi Kapur, of San Francisco’s Liholiho Yacht Club, created the Hurricane Popcorn flavor. Packed with inspiration from his childhood, the ice cream begins with a buttered popcorn base and includes wakame (seaweed used in broths), candied rice crackers, and a black sesame caramel.
“Collaborating with Jake and team at Humphry Slocombe on this flavor was an awesome way to share a profound, taste-inspired memory from growing up in Hawaii,” Kapur has said about his work on the project.
“Each flavor partnership always started with a meeting where we discussed flavor profiles they are known for or interested in followed by emails back and forth brainstorming ideas,” Godby explains. “Then I would make a couple of sample pints to try. Sometimes we got it on the first round, sometimes it took two or three goes.”
Upcoming collaborations include a Hawaiian shaved ice–inspired flavor from Roy Choi (the host of Netflix’s The Chef Show) and a red velvet cake flavor by New Soul Kitchen author Tanya Holland.
