Reema Shroff Founder & Director, Frost 321, Austin, Texas
When you want to impress clients hosting 500 to 4,000 guests, quality and consistency count. Frost 321, a Texas-based company that uses a revolutionary liquid nitrogen process to freeze the freshest ingredients at -321 degrees Fahrenheit, produces extraordinary taste in ice creams, sorbets and cocktails. Listing Neiman Marcus and Volvo among its clients, Frost 321 caters at galas, weddings and special events nationwide and partners with major hotel groups and convention centers on elegant presentations of signature frozen drinks.
Founder Reema Shroff’s story of Frost 321 started at a fancy summer wedding in Paris, where dessert hour featured table-side demonstrations of liquid nitrogen desserts, the rising mist adding a theatrical effect to the cirque de soleil theme.
The ability to experiment with liquid nitrogen and alcohol was particularly intriguing to Reema, a health care attorney and entrepreneur. On the flight home from Paris, she couldn’t stop thinking about the incredible food she’d tasted at the wedding. She began experimenting at home and had the good fortune to be seated next to someone at an event related to one of her cases who advised her to develop her own line of machines.
Reema now works with a company in Dallas on a patent-pending system produced in Asia that features the proprietary back-lit cart seen at Frost321 events, an interactive experience for guests who enjoy watching the process. “We really just kind of put a lot of different pieces together to come up with our own liquid nitrogen system,” Reema says.
Her biggest concern, as an attorney, was making her system scalable to accommodate large numbers of people, but also safe. She assures customers that liquid nitrogen is used only for the freezing process and evaporates as mist in the air.
“The biggest advantage is that you’re freezing the ingredients ‘live’ or fresh so you’re not adding emulsifiers or things to keep them frozen,” Reema says. “It makes for a great cocktail because liquid nitrogen is the only thing that will actually freeze alcohol.”
“Long term partnerships are key to our company’s growth and success. When you cross that magic number of 150 to 200 you really need consistency to make recipes. The Perfect Purée makes it really easy at a larger scale,” she says.
Event favorites are Frost 321’s Wicked Chocolate Cherry with The Perfect Purée Cherry Puree and whiskey, and its Passion Colada with The Perfect Purée Passion Fruit Concentrate and Carmelized Pineapple Concentrate.
Some of Frost 321’s biggest partners are alcohol companies, who appreciate liquid nitrogen as a new way to feature their spirits, Reema says. One of her most popular after-dinner drinks is an ice cream martini.
Reema devotes most of her time now to Frost321 and stays busy not just in the summer when frozen drinks are in demand, but also during the holidays when, she says, Frost 321 ups the wow factor of holiday parties with seasonal cocktails and decadent desserts.