Chef Liz Rogers Is a Proud ‘à la Mode Girl’
Growing up, Liz Rogers would awake to the scent of her mother’s pies. “She would have 20 pies all baked and lined up on the table for the holidays,” Rogers tells Glamour. “She’d also make a 20-pound peach cobbler. There’d be all this flour on the floor because she made her dough fresh.” Of all her mother’s desserts, Rogers’s favorite was her sweet potato pie, which has since become the namesake of one of Rogers’s signature ice cream flavors: Granma GiGi’s Sweet Potato Pie.
Rogers is the mastermind behind Creamalicious Ice Cream, the only Black-owned national ice cream brand currently in production. But what truly sets Creamalicious’s award-winning ice cream apart from other brands is each flavor’s unique origin story. Be it the company’s take on caramel, banana, or chocolate ice cream, each is derived from Rogers’s own family recipes, which have been passed down over four generations of Southern home cooks. (Hence the colorful flavor names, including Porch Light Peach Cobbler, Right as Rain Red Velvet Cheesecake, Thick as Thieves Pecan Pie, Slap Yo’ Mama Banana Pudding, Uncle Charles Brown Suga Bourbon Cake, and Aunt Poonie's Caramel Pound Cake.)
“Creamalicious is a multicultural dessert for everyone from every ethnicity to enjoy, but I also want people to be like, ‘Hey, what am I eating?’ [The unique names and flavors make it] a conversation piece,” Rogers says. Like the aforementioned Right as Rain Red Velvet Cheesecake, her nod to red velvet cake and its frequent appearance at Juneteenth celebrations. But as much as the flavor is an acknowledgment of the past, it’s also a way to find joy in the present. “Here you are with this amazing red velvet cake,” she says. “And for this moment you forget that things are crappy in the world and there’s all this racism and division and all this tension going on.”
Ahead, for our latest How I Eat at Home, Rogers reflects on her love of cooking in a cast-iron skillet, her favorite cookie, and what comfort food means to her.
Glamour: What four staples are always in your kitchen?
Liz Rogers: I always have eggs, butter, vanilla, and milk.
What’s an edible impulse-buy you can never resist?
I really just love cupcakes, period. But if I had to pick one flavor to buy, it would be a vanilla cupcake with buttercream icing.
What does comfort food mean to you?
I had a job at a really upscale retirement community and I was the director of culinary services. When I got hired, I was in charge of all the meals, and [the residents said] they’d never had food like that. I remember talking to one of the residents and the guy said, “If my food was taken away from me, I’d just give up and not want to live.” It made me realize that comfort food is so important because it just brings you joy.
What dish did you cook the most in the pandemic?
Smoked chicken wings. I own a restaurant called Wing Champ and we won the best wings in the state of Ohio. We smoke and grill our wings, and also have a lot of dry rubs and sauces that we make. We’ll do a cherrywood [wing] and put a dry rub on them before we smoke them. That’s what I cook the most, really. All day, every day.
What thing gets the most use in your kitchen?
I use a cast-iron skillet the most because I bake everything in it. My grandmother used a cast-iron skillet, and my godmother baked all of her pound cakes in her cast-iron skillet that was passed down from her mom’s mom, to her mom, then to her. She passed away and it was passed down to her daughter Patricia. So this skillet…it’s just going to keep being passed down.
Lodge Preseasoned Cast-Iron Skillet
$17.9.00, Amazon
What’s your favorite meal to cook?
A Southern pasta. I make sweet potato and collard green pasta with a brown butter sauce. I love making homemade pasta.
Do you have a favorite midday snack?
Cookies. My favorite cookie is Tate's, to be honest. I like their coconut flavor the best because they’re really thin and crispy.
Tate's Bake Shop Thin & Crispy Cookies, Coconut Crisp
$25.00, Amazon
Is there a holiday dish you love cooking or eating?
Peach cobbler with ice cream. I don’t know about you, but I’m an à la mode girl. You won’t find me eating just a regular slice of pie—I have to have it à la mode. That’s pretty much why I created Creamalicious, so you don’t have to choose.
Samantha Leach is Bustle’s entertainment editor at large. Follow her on Twitter/Instagram @_sleach and check out her newsletter, The Spiel.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
