Our favorite ice cream in the world is the Ube Pandesal Toffee ice cream from Stella Jean’s Ice Cream, based in San Diego, California. Stella Jean’s was co-founded by Gan Suebsarakham and Steven Torres in 2018. Prior to that, they had opened up Pop Pie Co., which is our favorite pie shop in San Diego.
Eight years after the first Stella Jean’s location opened its doors, the ice cream brand has expanded to eight shops across San Diego and Orange County. We recently had a chance to chat with Suebsarakham and learned about how Thai culture has impacted his culinary career, the creative process behind our favorite Stella Jean’s favorite ice cream flavors, and what we can expect from Stella Jean’s in the future.
Let’s dig in:
K-Snax: Ice cream is its own kind of science. How did you learn the craft, and what was the hardest concept to master early on?
Suebsarakham: I went to culinary school for baking and pastry, where we learned mostly French-style custard ice cream. When we started Stella Jean’s, we shifted toward classic American or Philadelphia-style ice cream, which means no eggs and really letting the dairy shine. We work with a higher butterfat base, sixteen percent.
Early on, the hardest part was learning the ice cream machines themselves. During the R&D phase before we opened, it took time to understand how the machine behaved and how different bases and mix-ins affected texture. At the same time, we were figuring out how to create flavors that felt exciting but still approachable for a lot of people. That balance was challenging and it’s something we still think about all the time.
K-Snax: What flavors or food memories from your upbringing shaped your palate, and how did those influences find their way into Stella Jean’s?
Suebsarakham: Growing up Thai, I was surrounded by pandan leaves and coconut milk. One thing Thai cuisine really teaches you is how to build flavor by steeping pandan into coconut milk and always balancing sweetness with a little salt.
A lot of Thai desserts start with pandan-infused coconut milk, and that naturally made its way into Stella Jean’s. We’ve done many pandan flavors, and our Mango Sticky Rice ice cream uses a coconut milk base steeped with lots of pandan and finished with sea salt. Every time I take a bite, it reminds me of home.
K-Snax: Ube Pandesal Toffee is an unforgettable flavor. What was the spark for it, and how did you turn pandesal into toffee?
Suebsarakham: That flavor started as a collaboration with our queen pastry chef Jamie, who was formerly the executive pastry chef at Cowboy Star. She introduced us to pandesal by toasting it and steeping it into the ice cream base so the flavor really comes through. From there, we churned the base and layered it with her pandesal toffee bits.
The pandesal toffee bits were Jamie’s original creation and something she had already been using in her own dishes. That’s where we learned the technique from her and why it stuck with us.
When we later started developing an ube ice cream, we wanted something crunchy and interesting to pair with it, and those pandesal toffee pieces felt like the perfect fit. We asked Jamie if we could use them, and all the credit for that part goes to her. Since then, the flavor has become part of the core menu at Stella Jean’s Ice Cream.
K-Snax: When you build flavors like Mango Sticky Rice, Thai Tea Tiramisu, or Calamansi Creamsicle, what does your process look like?
Suebsarakham: We usually start by thinking about the season or upcoming holidays. We rotate four seasonal flavors several times a year, so timing really matters.
We get the team together a couple of months in advance and brainstorm ideas on a whiteboard. Everyone throws ideas out and we think about ingredients, seasonality, and even how the flavors will look. From there, we narrow things down and start making test batches. Sometimes we nail it right away, and other times it takes a few rounds of tasting and adjusting before it feels right.
K-Snax: We are constantly amazed by your ability to make such incredible vegan flavors. How do you make such delicious vegan flavors?
Suebsarakham: Thank you so much for the love for our vegan flavors. From day one, when we knew we were opening an ice cream shop, one of our main goals was to offer both dairy and non dairy ice cream that tasted truly delicious. We didn’t want our non-dairy options to feel like an afterthought or be limited to sorbets or a single coconut milk flavor.
The process is definitely different from making dairy based ice cream. A lot of the work goes into finding the right plant based base that stays smooth and creamy when frozen and doesn’t leave an aftertaste we don’t love. Over the years, we’ve experimented with cashew milk, oat milk, and blends of oat milk and coconut milk. Now we’re proud to say we’ve landed on our favorite vegan base yet, which is one hundred percent coconut milk. It’s incredibly creamy and pairs beautifully with so many flavors.
Another big challenge is the mix-ins. Since there’s no butter in our mix-ins and we make everything from scratch, it’s been a journey to find the right vegan butter and techniques for things like cake, cookies, and other baked mix-ins. We really care that those pieces taste just as good as their dairy versions. A lot of the time people tell us they didn’t even realize something was vegan or gluten free, which is always the best compliment.
For our gluten free baking, we also have to give a huge shout out to our partner Bob’s Red Mill. They’ve been with us since day one, and we use their products in everything from our house made waffle cones to cake bits, cookies, and other fun mix-ins. That support has made it possible for us to create vegan and gluten free ice cream that still feels indulgent and exciting at Stella Jean’s Ice Cream.
K-Snax: Are there any Asian flavor directions you’re excited to explore next?
Suebsarakham: I really love Korean food, and it’s an area we haven’t explored much yet. I’d love to play with flavors like misugaru, which is a Korean grain powder drink, or boricha, a roasted barley tea. Those flavors feel comforting and nostalgic and I think they would translate really well into ice cream.
K-Snax: What’s your vision for Stella Jean’s over the next five years?
Suebsarakham: We’re always open to growing, but we want to do it thoughtfully. One of my personal dreams is to open a location in Los Angeles, especially in Thai Town, where my roots are.
More than anything, over the next five years we want to keep Stella Jean’s exciting and fresh for the people who have supported us from the beginning, while continuing to tell stories through flavor.
What’s your favorite Asian snack?
Suebsarakham: That’s a tough one, but I really love Asian inspired pastries. If pastries count as snacks, that’s definitely my answer. Whenever I travel, I’m always looking for a bakery in whatever city I’m in, and I almost always end up gravitating toward the Asian inspired ones. They’re the ones I’m most excited to try.
Follow Stella Jean’s Ice Cream:
K-Snax 
Leave a comment