MHLV 10: Chef Luke Hendricks | Milk Money Ice Cream

“…It’s really important to show off what your town can do.” – Chef Luke Hendricks

It’s summertime now and for many, that means ice cream. Refreshing, satisfying ice cream bursting with the local flavors of the season!!

Chef Luke Hendricks runs Milk Money, a mobile ice cream company (i.e. good old fashioned ice cream cart) with his wife, Nish. Luke handles the product and Nish handles the business, more or less. Milk Money makes small batch ice cream with local, seasonal ingredients and they’ve been cooling off Denver’s farmer’s market patrons for the past two years.

Luke’s a Colorado native and a graduate of Johnson & Wales University. He’s been cooking for 15 years, cutting his teeth in California’s farm-to-table movement before returning to CO. For the last four years, Luke has been the Sous Chef at Potager, a well-respected pioneer in Denver’s farm-to-table movement.

– IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN –

• Why a chef with his experience chose ice cream to branch out
• How Colorado’s fruit really shines in sorbets
• How local finished goods like coffee & beer fill in the gap when fruit’s not in season
• How purchasing locally creates community
• Why the challenges of sourcing locally pay off in flavor
• How to best source ingredients that don’t grow locally
• How pride and enthusiasm to connect consumers to the local ingredient message
• Why he doesn’t think ice cream causes murders
• How they want to overcome the winter ice cream sales slump
• Why growing consumer demand for local products makes sourcing easier, not harder

– LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE –

• Milk Money (Facebook)
• Cherry Creek Farmer’s Market (Weds, Sat)
• Stapleton Farmer’s Market (Sun)
• Potager Restaurant
• Pachamama Farm (rhubarb)
• Aspen Moon Farms (strawberries, CSA)
• Ela Family Farms (peaches, apples)
• Munson Farms (cherries)
• Left Hand Brewing (Nitro Milk Stout)
• Humble Pie Store
• Huckleberry Roasters (coffee)
• Novo Coffee
• Nielsen-Massey (vanilla)
• Ritual Chocolate (Utah)
• Emery Thompson (Florida) (ice cream machinery)
• Johnson & Wales University
• NPR’s Science Friday on the science of ice cream (15 mins)

– THANKS FOR LISTENING –

This episode MHLV 10: Chef Luke Hendricks | Milk Money Ice Cream comes from Mile High Locavorist.