Real World Ice Cream Experience
The Frozen Dessert Institute (formally known as Scoop School) has been teaching entrepreneurs the skills and principles of ice cream store ownership for more than 10 years with over 1000 students graduating from the class.
Initially launched in Escanaba Michigan, the class was originally fashioned around the frozen custard concept and consisted of 2-day weekend course. Then a third day was added to its curriculum with expanded subjects including a factory tour where ice cream equipment was manufactured.
In 2006 the facility was relocated to St Louis Missouri to centralize and simplify the travel of our students. The curriculum was further enhanced to include an Ice Cream Crawl and was located in the Culinary Arts wing of the St Louis Community College.
In September 2010, a pilot store was built and opened as the new FDI where students can learn all of the facets of opening and running an ice cream store, in an actually functioning Ice Cream store. The store, Mr C’s Ice Cream Emporium, location in Ballwin Missouri (just west of St Louis) offers its customers a unique array of frozen desserts including;
- 2 flavors of fresh frozen custard
- 2 flavors of frozen yogurt
- 6 flavors of premium ice cream
- 4 flavors of gelato
- 2 flavors of sorbet.
The concept is based upon our Director Steve Christensen’s store that he operated in Australia before moving to the United States. All these ice creams are made fresh daily in the store right before our customer’s eyes, providing a range and freshness of product unique to its location.
What does this mean for our students? The store environment combines the knowledge and experience of our instructors with a real world ice cream experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else.
