Cora Cotrim is the Queen of Cream - a title coined when the pastry chef decided to tackle the one sweet thing she didn’t know how to make.
Ice cream.
“I got into making a lot of it at home but it wasn’t good. It was too icy or the flavor just wasn’t there. I played obsessively until I got it right,” she says.
A friend labeled her the “Queen of Cream” and the rest is history.
In 2013, she took her Queen of Cream cart on the road, starting out small by limiting the cart to events and festivals. In the next two years she began selling at farmers markets like Grant Park and Decatur and took on some wholesale accounts and private catering as well.
This year she'll be at those markets as well as the new Wednesday night Peachtree Road Farmers Market starting in April and as one of the rotating vendors at the Green Market at Piedmont Park. The cart occasionally makes an appearance at other markets like Serenbe’s Saturday morning market in Chattahoochee Hills.
“I love the markets because I love walking around and talking with vendors. And the customers are happy to be there. They want to talk about your products and they like to taste new things.”
But the carts have their limitations. Each one can only hold about six flavors. “We change the flavors every three to four weeks. Two are staples and the others are seasonal flavors.”
Credit: C. W. Cameron
Credit: C. W. Cameron
How to overcome that limitation? Open a shop.
Last September, Cotrim opened the Queen of Cream Ice Cream and Coffee Parlor on N. Highland Avenue. The shop now houses the production kitchen where all ice cream is made from scratch from locally sourced dairy. And customers can choose from at least a dozen flavors of ice cream with at least two non-dairy options.
The shop is also where the team bakes cookies and brownies “and other things that go with ice cream” and on weekends offers breakfast. “We don’t get too crazy. The offerings are pretty simple and vegetable driven.”
Her advice to other budding food entrepreneurs? “The food industry is hard. It’s long hours and with ice cream, there’s a lot of heavy lifting. When you’re starting out and you’re tired and you’re faced with all the ups and downs, you have to remember that there’s a bright future ahead.”
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