How Rocky Road Ice Cream Got Its Start in Oakland

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2019

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two Oakland ice cream makers claim they invented the famous flavor — Fenton's Creamery and Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream. Either way, the depression-era creation changed the game for ice cream flavors in America. More food history episodes: Dutch Crunch Mai Tai Green Goddess Salad Dressing It's It Ice Cream Sandwiches Sourdough Irish Coffee Reported by Sasha Khokha, host of The California Report Magazine. Edited by Suzie Racho. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek and Katie McMurran. Additional support from Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Julie Caine, Kyana Moghadam, Carly Severn, Vinnee Tong, Ethan Lindsey and Pat Yollin.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:02.0	Hey everybody, Olivia Alan Price here.
0:06.5	You may know me as the host of Bay Curious these days, but one of my first jobs was
0:11.0	scooping ice cream at a local shop in Burlington, North Carolina.
0:16.9	It was one of those cute shops with a checkered tile floor, stools that swiveled in place at the bar and above the back counter a giant
0:26.3	hand-lettered menu advertising hands-spun milkshakes and the banana split.
0:31.5	I spent six years working at this little shop from high school
0:35.8	through college and when you scoop ice cream that long you develop an uncanny
0:40.3	skill to guess the flavor someone will order as soon as they walk in the door.
0:45.8	Kids under 7, easy, bubble gum.
0:48.8	Someone in preppy clothes?
0:50.6	Probably coconut almond chip. A group of teenagers, cake batter. Over 65, butter
0:57.2	pecan. Then there were a few flavors that were wild cards. They held a
1:02.0	peel to everyone. Vanilla and chocolate, of course,
1:05.7	cookies and cream, and a flavor that was invented here in the Bay Area. Rocky Road.
1:20.0	Last year, listener Brent Silver asked what foods were invented in the Bay Area. We addressed that question in a series called Golden State Plate. Today, the latest installment,
1:26.4	the contentious origins of Rocky Road. Support for Bay Curiouserious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family owned, operated, and argued over.
1:48.0	Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold and taste how trailblazing runs in the family.
1:54.4	Visit Sierra Nevada.com to find your new favorite beer today.
1:59.2	Even though nearly a century has passed since Rocky Road was invented, there's still a dispute over just who thought up the recipe.
2:08.5	K-Q-E-Sashikoca headed out to get the dish. Okay, welcome to Oakland.
2:14.0	You are in the birthplace of Rocky Road ice cream.
	...

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