Global taste: 'Ezra and Andrew's World View' ice cream is inaugural treat

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Spanning the globe to bring you flavors from every continent -- the thrill of chocolate meeting espresso and the agony of seeing an empty ice cream cup: This is the Cornell inaugural ice cream, Ezra and Andrew's World View.

Displaying cups of the special inauguration ice cream flavor, Ezra and Andrew's World View, Oct. 8 at the Cornell Dairy Bar -- and showing that top Cornell administrators have sweet teeth too -- are, from left, Vice Presidents Inge Reichenbach and Susan Murphy; Senior Adviser to the President Barbara Krause; interim Vice President Linda Grace-Kobas; and Vice Presidents Carolyn Ainslie and Mary George Opperman. Robert Barker/University Photography

To follow the global theme of President Jeffrey S. Lehman's inauguration, David P. Brown, a senior extension associate in the Department of Food Science, was faced with a daunting task: Create an ice cream that features a flavor or component from every continent. He did.

Ezra and Andrew's World View is an espresso ice cream with a fudge swirl and hints of cinnamon and vanilla, crushed hazelnuts and praline pecans -- a rich, premium ice cream.

Brown says that the fudge represents cocoa products of Africa, the coffee is a product of South America, the hazelnuts are European, the pecans are from North America, the cinnamon is from Asia, the vanilla represents Oceania, and the ice in the ice cream represents Antarctica. "I couldn't get the penguin fat sent here in time, so ice is pretty much the only other indigenous food product available [in Antarctica]," Brown said.

But how does it blend and taste? "This one's a good flavor," said Brown, who spent time in Cornell's food science pilot plant and at home tinkering with a variety of flavors. One of the original concepts was a deep red ice cream that featured cinnamon pieces -- but the "red didn't work very well," he said.

The Cornell Dairy, managed by Bonnie Hart, will make 2,500 individual cups of the ice cream for the inauguration in Ithaca today, Oct. 16. The dairy also will make 60 gallons to serve in dining halls and at other university functions. Inside all that ice cream will be 40 pounds of crushed hazelnuts, 40 pounds of pecans, two gallons of coffee extract, 25 pounds of cinnamon base and 20 ounces of vanilla extract.

Making ice cream for special events has become a Cornell tradition. The inauguration of President Hunter Rawlings in 1995 featured an ice cream called Inaugural Swirl. For the retirement of President Frank H.T. Rhodes, the food science department concocted Rocky Rhodes.