In Shondaland’s Joy Makers series, we spotlight creative curators who operate behind the scenes to inspire moments of elation. Their handiwork illuminates pathways to delightfulness, and their one-of-a-kind insights help us find happiness in our own lives. In this month’s installment, we explore the joy of flavor.
In her stainless-finish kitchen with photos of ice cream hanging behind her, Maya Warren dances around in a lab coat. She greets viewers with a big smile, radiating a warmth so genuine that you can’t help but smile back. Over the course of nearly 40 videos, the ice cream scientist has bopped her way through an Instagram Live series where she taught viewers how to make mouthwatering ice cream creations like no-churn Campfire S’mores and Bourbon Vanilla Sea Salt Caramel at home — no machine and minimal utensils required.
“Ice cream is the vessel through which I communicate,” says the ice cream scientist and head of research and development at Tyra Banks’ SMiZE Cream. “I’m going to do whatever it [takes] to be able to bring joy to people through what I do.”
What sets her work apart from that of a recipe developer is the scientific approach of engineering the texture and calculating the consistency of the frozen dessert, then using the knowledge of how the flavors will land in one’s mouth to create dynamic tastes.
Warren’s love of food science began at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The St. Louis native was a chemistry student by day, and a rugby and cross-country athlete by night. She wanted to be a sports medicine doctor — or so she thought. In a sweet, serendipitous turn of events, that all changed the day an episode of Food Network’s Unwrapped came on while she was over at her best friend’s house.
“I remember seeing that episode and being like, ‘Wow, I’m a chemist,’” she says. “‘I could be a flavor chemist.’” Warren watched as host Marc Summers ventured into a food chemistry lab and uncovered the process of how certain dishes were engineered; in this case, it was Thanksgiving food-flavored sodas. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. That does not sound good at all.’ But I was so intellectually intrigued and stimulated.”
Warren immediately thought about her longtime love for ice cream. “Everyone has that ice cream story from when they were younger, when they would go to their local [store]. Everyone has that connection. And for me, that’s what ice cream truly is at its core.” Warren decided she’d forgo sports medicine lickety split.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D. in food science, where she specialized in the microstructure and sensorial and behavioral properties of frozen aerated desserts, Warren launched her career at Cold Stone Creamery as an ice cream scientist. The international ice cream parlor discovered Warren thanks to her stint and reign as the season 25 champion on The Amazing Race with her friend and graduate school lab partner, Amy DeJong.
The opportunity led to Warren continuing to travel around the world even after The Amazing Race finished. For four years, she helped creameries in international locations, including Nigeria, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, and Egypt, build dairy bases. Shipping ice cream from the United States to other countries is incredibly expensive, so Warren was tasked with calculating ice cream formulas that tasted like an exact replica of the company’s most famous flavors — but with local ingredients.
“For me, it wasn’t even about making the ice cream,” Warren says. “It was about everything that came with ice cream being made locally. That meant more jobs for people. … It meant being able to teach people a new skill set that they didn’t necessarily have [where they’re from].”
Almost five years later, Warren was discovered by another icon: Tyra Banks. “That first phone call I had with her, she was like, ‘I’m looking for someone like you. I would really love an African American female. Do you know anyone?’” Warren recalls of her initial chat with the supermodel and television host. “I was like, ‘If you’re in ice cream, I’m the only one.’” The conversation led to Warren joining Banks for SMiZE Cream.
Day to day, Warren oversees the research and creation process at the premium ice cream brand. “A lot of what I do is formulation development to create the formula that we can then scale up,” she says. She works alongside Banks, who’s just as passionate about the beloved frozen dessert, to develop distinctive ice cream flavors, from Caramel Cookie Queen to The Best Vanilla I Ever Had.
“Most people don’t think about ice cream as a science, but that’s truly, at its core, what it is,” Warren says. “I call it a formula because when I’m building it, I’m looking at more than just the ingredients at its core. I’m going to add sugar, but what’s the result of the sugar? The sugar isn’t just for sweetness. The sugar is also to lower the freezing point depression to make sure that it’s scoopable so it scoops the right way.”
Warren experiments with different textures, creating her dairy base then incorporating and testing with an emulsion of flavors from there, imbuing it with her artistry and knowledge. “To me, ice cream is a blank canvas,” she says. “You can throw anything and everything at it. Sometimes it tastes good; sometimes it doesn’t.” She whips up batches for testing, then packages them in tiny containers for Banks and the team to try. “We constantly taste so that we can get to the right one, and we’re able to replicate it.”
The flavors aren’t just tasty; they deliver joy with their deeper meaning. Earlier this year, Warren developed one of her most ambitious flavors yet: Hot Honey Fried Cornbread. The start-up team decided they wanted to develop a limited-edition pint to honor Black History Month. “Tyra being African American, as well as myself, [we] wanted to really stand for something with the flavor,” she says. “We started throwing around ideas, and I was like, ‘What about corn bread?’ Corn bread is in the root of African American culture, from slavery and all the way to today.”
Warren says developing Hot Honey Fried Cornbread and any other new flavor involves patience, creativity, and trial and error. “I went through so many different iterations of ‘What type of corn bread are we using? Is it combined with a little bit of cake mix too?’” Warren says. “I’m building the texture so that when you eat it, the corn bread isn’t too hard.” She’s in charge of getting every aspect of the consistency just right so that when the ice cream is consumed, it’s still deliciously soft at frozen temperatures.
While working on the corn-bread aspect, Warren was simultaneously mastering her own hot honey to include in the new ice cream flavor. She played with various peppers, from jalapeño and red chilis to habeñero, seeking a balance of heat with a nice kick but not too hot. “You would get this little essence of heat on the back end,” she explains, “as you continuously eat it.”
After two weeks of working every day to formulate the correct emulsion in Banks’ kitchen, they perfected the corn bread and hot honey that would be mixed into the ice cream base. “The corn bread itself was pan-fried in brown sugar and butter,” Warren says. She salted the creation, and a new flavor was born. (It’ll be back next February.)
“As time has gone on, it’s been less about me and more about everyone else and how happy ice cream makes people,” Warren says. “It’s now about being able to spread the joy and love of ice cream.”
During the pandemic, Warren began hosting “Ice Cream Sundays” on Instagram Live. “When I saw that everyone was making sourdough bread and banana bread,” she says about the baking uptick during the summer of 2020, “I was like, ‘Wait. Why aren’t people making ice cream?’ Ice cream is the true comfort food, if you ask me.” She realized that the beloved dessert might not be seen as readily accessible to everyone at home — especially for those who don’t own ice cream machines — so she started teaching.
Warren also created the series as a way to foster connection during an intensely isolating and scary time. “People just needed something that was fun and that they loved that they could go to,” she says, mentioning George Floyd’s murder and the political tension bubbling during the presidential election. Warren, who is also the co-founder of Ice Cream for Change, wanted viewers to share in the ability to get lost in the meditative process of making ice cream and have a sweet outcome as the reward.
The virtual series brought together thousands of viewers who flooded the comments section with an avalanche of personal anecdotes about the series’ positive impact. “I could have never imagined how many people I would touch doing Ice Cream Sundays,” says Warren, who holds one young fan especially close to her heart. A viewer sent in a video of her elementary schooler who watched the series. “[The mom] said, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” Warren recalls. “The little girl turned to the camera and said, ‘I want to be an ice cream scientist just like Dr. Maya.’”
Through her work, Warren inspires and encourages others to chase their wildest, biggest, and most seemingly far-fetched dreams. “If I can study ice cream for six and a half, almost seven, years,” she says, “you can do anything and everything that your heart desires.”
Warren’s joy doesn’t solely stem from conjuring sweet treats from scratch or the creativity behind combining unexpected yet satisfying flavors. It derives from connection, from the act of sharing its delight with others. “Ice cream speaks every single language,” Warren says. “It has no boundaries. It has no isms. It truly is a universal food. No matter where you are in the world, there’s something like ice cream that everyone can connect with.”
Maya Warren’s Three Tips for Ice Cream Tasting
Let it melt a little
“If you really want to get technical with it and want it to hit your palate the right way, let it sit out for a little bit. It’s perceived as sweeter when it melts. Your taste receptors can taste the sugar more when it’s not so cold.”
Start with a flipped spoon
“Let the ice cream touch your tongue first because that’s where your taste receptors are … not on the roof of your mouth! Then, enjoy the essence of the ice cream. Let it melt a little bit in your mouth … then start chewing and get all the flavors at once.”
Share it with a loved one
“Eat it with someone that you truly love because it’s a communal food. It’s about community. It’s about bringing people together.”
Mia Brabham is a staff writer at Shondaland. Follow her on Twitter at @hotmessmia.
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