Cone of Influence SLOAN KAMENSTEIN, founder, Sloan’s ice cream parlors
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loan Kamenstein likes thinking about the vacation he took before opening his first store in 1999. It was several years after culinary school in London, and he was on a cruise ship with his mom, dad and sister—everyone dreaming up flavors for Kamenstein’s new ice cream parlor in West Palm Beach. “There wasn’t any of the business pressure yet,” he says. “Just everybody sitting around, having fun.” Today, Kamenstein, 47, owns five stores, including one in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park. While his fun, cheeky shops are big business, he still relies on his family for tasting and testing new flavors. The process, of course, is super scientific. He collects everyone, sometimes even inviting his twin nieces, and then he lays out his lab materials: Little paper cups, the kind you might spit in at the dentist’s office, mediumweight plastic spoons, and a marker to number the bottom of each little paper cup. “I don’t want anyone to know which one they’re tasting,” he says. Because one of the franchise owners in Delray Beach says customers have been asking for it, this particular experiment involves something salty, something caramel. For most taste sessions, Kamenstein doles out three samples. Same flavor, slightly dif-
Sloan Kamenstein with a double scoop of heaven in a waffle cone
While his fun, ch business, he still eeky shops are big relies on his fam ily for tasting and te sting new flavors . Like Foodie Jobs?
Check out other jobs in and around Boca with ties to the culinary world. ✓ Chef on a yacht ✓ Food truck operator ✓ Caterer ✓ Food safety/quality coordinator ✓ Nutritionist ✓ Food stylist/photographer ✓ Purchasing manager ✓ Food broker
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BOCAMAG.COM november 2015
ferent recipes, all from the Sloan’s kitchen. In the old days, Kamenstein himself would have mixed up the batches in the rear kitchen of the Clematis Street store, but they’ve outgrown that system. What they haven’t outgrown, though, is the basic recipe: sugar, vanilla and egg yolks. After that, it’s time for the stuff that makes Sloan’s ice cream Sloan’s ice cream. For the coffee and doughnuts flavor, they use big hunks of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, added at the end. Kamenstein puts homemade chocolate chip cookies in the cookies and cream flavor. The real trick to perfect ice cream? You need a freezing cabinet, so your mixture freezes quickly, thus avoiding any ice crystals. It also helps to have an outspoken family that likes its sweets. “Sometimes it’s a little tricky, because everybody likes all three,” he says. “How bad can any of it be?”