The Coolest Job

Inside Dining Services’ Willy Wonka-esque bakery at the University of Maryland, marshmallows, peanut butter cups, brownie dough, chocolate ganache, caramelized graham crackers and salted caramel swirl together to make some 12,000 gallons of ice cream every year for the Maryland Dairy. 

Saturday marks National Ice Cream Day, perhaps the only annual day of celebration we can all agree to observe. (Apologies to the lactose-intolerant among us.) “Ice cream is a comfort food to any age,” said Jeff Russo, the executive pastry chef who leads ice cream production. “When you’re having a bad day, you have a scoop, and it’ll put a smile on your face.”

Learn about a Shakespeare-inspired ice cream flavor, the state of Maryland’s long history in the frozen confection game and UMD’s iconic ice cream innovator in the latest installment of UMD’s “Peer Review” video series highlighting remarkable faculty, staff, students and alums.