“Ice Cream Queen: Flavors from Black America’s Past, Present & Future” by Lokelani Alabanza, c.2026, W.W. Norton, $29.99, 264 pages
You’ve probably never tasted an unpalatable scoop of ice cream.
Whether it’s rocky road, chocolate chip cookie dough or plain vanilla topped with caramel sauce or draped in a rainbow of sprinkles, it is unlikely you’ve discarded any flavor of the frozen confection in a cup or cone on a hot summer’s day.
And for nearly three centuries, “African American hands have been touching sugar,” often the most essential ingredient in ice cream, says pastry chef and author Lokelani Alabanza in her new cookbook, “Ice Cream Queen: Flavors From Black America’s Past, Present & Future.” Black people risked life and limb, says Alabanza, planting, harvesting and processing sugar.
For Alabanza, who has trained in kitchens in the U.S., Europe and Asia, the sometimes difficult history of ice cream’s main ingredient makes her discovery of Sarah Estell, a free Black woman and pioneering entrepreneur who owned a Nashville ice cream saloon in the mid-1800s, a historic – and welcome – revelation that had been frozen in time.
Known locally as the “Ice Cream Queen,” Estell sold ice cream she made from her own recipes from about 1840 until the Civil War. But after 1865, Estell seems to have disappeared, says Alabanza, who now lives in Nashville.
Humans have been eating ice cream, or frozen desserts similar to it, for thousands of years, tracing its origins to different parts of the ancient world, including Persia, known today as Iran, and China. But the tasty treat arrived in America in the 1740s, about 30 years before the New York City opening of the country’s first ice cream parlor, considered a socially acceptable establishment for unchaperoned ladies to patronize. And the “parlor” label may have helped make it a hit, since a typically male-dominated “shop,” akin to taverns, was deemed unsuitable.
For her part, Alabanza has found inspiration in Estell’s example, offering readers a delightful collection of more than 100 recipes for basic flavors, unexpected savory varieties such as Parmesan or cream cheese and pepper jelly, and sweet concoctions including burnt almond, marshmallow, blueberry, cranberry-cherry vodka and summer corn.
To help would-be frozen dessert chefs get started, the cookbook includes a glossary of terms, equipment lists and recipes for simple bases, the liquid mixture of basic ingredients that will be frozen and eventually churned to make ice cream.
From a primer on the origins of ice cream and tales of notable ice cream makers throughout history to recipes, glossy photos and step-by-step instructions, Alabanza’s “Ice Cream Queen: Flavors From Black America’s Past, Present & Future” will satisfy food historians, chefs, home cooks, foodies and, of course, ice cream lovers of all ages on a hot summer day.
“I have yet to come across one person who doesn’t like ice cream,” says Alabanza. “Not one.”
