New York's Best Gelato Maker Weighs in on the Strawberry and Vanilla Ice Cream Controversies

Posted by Ed Levine, June 27, 2008 at 12:45 PM

Over on Serious Eats we've asked folks to help us settle controversies surrounding strawberry ice cream (whether it's wonderful or not) and vanilla ice cream (whether the vanilla bean specks are a sure sign of superior vanilla ice cream). Who better to weigh in, with her considerable cred in this area, than Otto's resident gelato and sorbetto genius, Meredith Kurtzman? Kurtzman is the gelato-maker who has given us the heavenly olive oil flavor available at Mario Batali's pizzeria and enoteca.

Ed,
I'd like to throw my hat into the strawberry ice cream ring. We're using local strawberries—no frozen bits—and it's a contender I think. The fragrance that you get from vanilla beans cannot be matched by extract. I'll stand by this until someone shows me the money. Also,this week at Otto, very creamy cantaloupe and nectarine sorbets. More summer fruit in the pipeline (if I only could afford to make raspberry).

Regards,
Meredith, Otto

Otto: 1 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10003 (at 8th Street; map); 212-995-9559

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Tags: gelato, ice cream, Otto