What It Takes To Become An 'Ice Cream Scientist'

Any pastry chef, boulanger, or skilled home baker will tell you that developing a recipe for a baked good is more about chemistry than intuition. Even the slightest disparity in a leavening agent, for instance, can be the difference between a batch of naan and a loaf of bread. "When you put the raw cookie dough into the oven, you're setting off a series of chemical reactions that transform one substance [...] into another," says the narrator of an animated TEDEd video about the science of cookie-making. 

Chemical reactions also come into play in the development of non-baked sweets. Ice cream is a perfect example. While it appears smooth in its final form, the ingredients required to make it don't want to mix together without an emulsifier. The American Chemical Society identifies ice cream-making as the process of fat globules (liquid particles of fat) spreading throughout a mixture of water, sugar, ice, and air bubbles. The result is a porous substance that — fun fact — is technically classified as a foam.

The world of ice cream is rife with potential for innovation, which means it's some lucky person's job to apply a chemistry and microbiology background to new takes on the frozen treat, like the scientist in Spain who created color-changing ice cream. Here's what it takes to shine in the field. 

Dr. Maya Warren is an ice cream scientist. You can find her globe-trotting for Cold Stone Creamery, where she serves as the Senior Director for International Research and Development. What's more, Warren also develops flavors for Tyra Banks' ice cream company, SMiZE Cream.

In an interview with Mental Floss, Warren said that she became intent on becoming "one of the world's experts in frozen aerated deserts" after seeing a particularly inspiring episode of Food Network's "Unwrapped." Now, having earned a Ph.D. in food science from UW Madison, Warren considers herself "an expert in ice cream and all its close cousins."

Cold Stone's initial interest in Warren was all thanks to her contestant role on the CBS reality show "The Amazing Race," which she won in 2014. The brand learned from a press interview that Warren had a background in science, and reached out to see if she wanted to join the team as its foremost ice cream chemist. Now, Warren spends her time "establishing dairies and building ice cream mixes" for Cold Stone outposts around the world. It's a sweet gig in every sense of the word. 

In her Instagram Live series "Ice Cream Sundays With Dr. Maya," which airs occasionally on Sundays at noon EST, Dr. Maya Warren flexes her talent for inventing distinctive ice cream flavors. Recent tutorials range from eggnog to coffee & cream to Snickers to Lucky Charms, all of which would fit right in on the bill of trendy ice cream purveyors like Van Leeuwen. 

They're all no-churn recipes, which typically do not contain eggs and replace granulated sugar with condensed milk, per Pastry Arts Magazine. Unlike traditional ice cream, there's no heat involved in making no-churn scoops. Instead, the creaminess involved in no-churn ice cream comes from whipped cream, which Warren has a recipe for as well. 

In a profile interview with Scientists in School, Warren said there's no hidden secret to getting to her level of ice cream mastery. Like many professions, especially in the STEM field, it just requires a whole lot of schooling and dedication — and, of course, an undying love of ice cream.