By PDX People<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the great things about living in Portland Oregon over the last 10 years has been the wide variety of restaurants and dessert restaurants like Salt & Straw.<\/span><\/p>\n

Started in 2011 by cousins Kim Malek and Tyler Malek, Salt & Straw first started out as a food cart on Alberta Street in Portland before opening their first \u201cbrick-and-mortar\u201d location just three months later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today Salt & Straw is recognized as one of the top artisan ice cream brands in the United States since they have locations in Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles plus ice cream fans can also order delicious ice cream online from http:\/\/www.saltandstraw.com<\/a> and have a pint delivered to their house, packed in dry ice so it\u2019s as fresh as when you buy a scoop from one of their shops.<\/span><\/p>\n

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About Tyler Malek<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Without a doubt, Salt & Straw is a co-venture, owned by Kim and Tyler Malek, but Tyler has often been described as the \u201cbrains\u201d behind salt and straw because long Kim started the company, Tyler was conducting his own ice cream \u201cexperiments\u201d from home and many of those experiments became the Salt & Straw flavors that fans know and love today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tall and lanky, the bespectacled 28-year-old is the official head ice cream maker and creative mastermind behind the flavors at Salt & Straw and has been on board since the company was founded by his cousin Kim Malek in 2011. The popular Portland, Ore.-based ice cream company has just opened its third Los Angeles location, in Studio City.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tyler Malek finds inspiration for ice cream flavors in a variety of sources, including the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. “They came to our Portland kitchen last year and played, and we translated the music into flavors. I saw the musical notes and they read like a recipe,\u201d says Malek. \u201cOne was a Bach piece. The way the flavors would transform and melt in your mouth for 1 1\/2 minutes follows a particular 1 1\/2-minute piece of music.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To date, Salt & Straw has come up with more than 300 unique recipes, and Malek has played with ingredients as diverse as berries, chocolate and his grandmother\u2019s almond brittle, as well as more unconventional flavorings such as sea urchin and fermented carrots. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Where to get ice cream and gelato in and around Los Angeles<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Why ice cream? \u201cYou don\u2019t need it \u2014 it\u2019s fun,” says Malek. “But more importantly, you can tell whatever story you want on that frozen canvas.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Malek originally studied Chinese and business, graduating from Western Washington University in 2010. He discovered his passion for blending flavors while studying in China and traveling throughout Vietnam and Cambodia and was enrolled in culinary school when his cousin told him about her dream of starting an ice cream business. He joined her in Portland, and Salt & Straw was born, first as a food cart, then with its first brick-and-mortar shop. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the beginning, Malek knew nothing about the ice cream-making process. \u201cI had all these crazy ideas, but no idea what they actually meant in practice.\u201d He visited experts in various fields \u2014 including chocolatiers and beer brewers \u2014 to learn about their processes so he could translate the flavors into ice cream. \u201cThey were so open to sharing and helping me out. It\u2019s that true cooperation that leads to all these great stories and flavors.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

While Salt & Straw has a selection of classic flavors it sells year-round, Malek is always coming up with new recipes and themed series. \u201cI\u2019ll start thinking about ideas a year in advance, and we come up with new flavors every four weeks. It\u2019s that constant drumbeat.\u201d For Malek, developing flavors is much like storytelling. \u201cI\u2019ve tried to go different routes, but I find it\u2019s easiest to come up with a cohesive story in developing flavors. I like to look at it through themes.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Inspiration comes from anywhere, be it the latest offerings at the farmer’s markets, the notion of time or a partnership with a chef. One of his first collaborations was with Michael Voltaggio when the chef came for a food festival in Portland. \u201cHe offered to send me some ice creams he\u2019d done and I said, \u2018No, let\u2019s talk about the restaurant and your passions. What is the verbiage you use to explain that and how can we translate that in a scoop of ice cream?\u2019\u201d They ended up creating a loaded baked potato ice cream.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n