The Only Michelin-Starred Ice Cream In The World Is Predictably Fancy

Ice cream is finally getting the glow-up it deserves with Minimal, the first ice cream restaurant in the world to get a Michelin star. In 2021, Minimal was founded by pastry chef and ice obsessive Arvin Wan in Taichung, Taiwan. In 2023, Minimal received a Bib Gourmand, Michelin's award for restaurants serving good food at moderate prices. Finally, in Michelin's 2024 guide to Taiwan, Minimal earned a much-coveted star. In the past, Michelin touted Miami-based Red Rooster's ice cream as "the best in Miami."

While ice cream sandwiches were once sold at high-end eateries, nothing compares to the level of sophistication at Minimal. The restaurant offers an ever-changing tasting menu of foods at varying temperatures, including one hot course and a pastry paired with a gelato course. Most courses are ice, ice cream/gelatos, and lollipops. The cherry blossom and sake lollipop is served at -40 degrees Celsius, giving it a crunchy, airy texture that melts away like cotton candy, while a dippin' dots-esque dish served at -196 degrees Celcius is made with tiny balls of lactic acid, pink peppercorn strawberry, and roselle perilla. If you don't have time for a full set menu experience, a takeaway shop on the ground floor sells unique and seasonal ice creams.

The Michelin guide praises Minimal for "Its complex layering of flavours and textures," along with the dishes plating and theming. The 20-seat space is an elevated minimalist take on wabi-sabi, the Japanese view on transience and imperfection in aesthetics. Arvin Wan felt the minimalism in the space mirrored his approach to ice cream – few ingredients, and every bite is well thought out.

Most Michelin-star kitchens are full of top-end stoves and ovens, but Wan's kitchen is full of refrigerators of varying temperatures. To earn a Michelin star, you have to do more than make tasty food; it has to be an entire experience for all the senses. Scent tends to fade in lower temperatures, so Wan often uses other ingredients just for their imparted aroma, making the experience of the dish more complex. 

At the end of the day, Wan is a true devotee of all things iced, as he eats ice cream almost every day and still loves the simple, non-fussy treats from his childhood, like shaved ice. So, if all this made you want to go out to get a sweet treat of your own, get a simple treat from a place on our ranking of 12 different fast food soft serve ice creams now while you wait for your trip to Taiwan.