Ice cream maker travels a rocky road to success

Combining a little transcendental meditation and somehigh-quality ingredients, Fred Gratzon created Great Midwestern IceCream, another entry into the superpremium (translate to high-fat)ice cream category.

In 1979, Gratzon, a liberal arts major who spent most of hiscollege years working on a certificate to teach transcendentalmeditation, headed for Fairfield, Iowa, home of MaharishiInternational University.

Unable to find a lucrative job as a TM teacher, he noted theneed in rural Iowa for good ice cream.

Fairfield was a rural community, Gratzon discovered. "Theremust be about a thousand teachers of TM and very few people to teach,so I had to look for another career," he said.

As he looked around, Gratzon was struck by another feature ofIowa farm life.

"There were all of those great cows, but no great ice cream," hesaid.

Gratzon set out to correct that inequity armed with used icecream-making equipment (bought with a $10,000 loan from family andfriends), plenty of free advice from old-timers he had met at aChicago convention of the International Association of Ice CreamManufacturers, and "this ideal to make the best possible ice cream."

Less than 10 years after creating Great Midwestern Ice Cream,Gratzon projects sales will be more than $5 million this year. GreatMidwestern not only is profitable, but it's good ice cream as well.

In one of the few national taste-offs, sponsored by Peoplemagazine in 1984, Great Midwestern's blueberry ice cream was namedthe nation's best regular ice cream (the category included vanilla,but not chocolate) in a contest of 246 companies making superpremiumice cream.

Blueberry leads a lineup of such flavors as coffee chip, cherryvanilla and gianduia, an Italian flavor blending hazelnut andchocolate.

Great Midwestern ice creams carry a high 16 percent butterfatcontent; they also have a low 15 percent air content. What theydon't have are eggs, on orders from Gratzon.

"All of the really rich ice creams use egg yolk stabilizer," hesays. "But egg imparts a very strong taste and it doesn't agree withme. I feel it gets in the way of the subtlety of flavorings."

Gratzon uses a vegetable stabilizer. "The dairy taste is cleanerand truer," he says.

People can try Gratzon's ice cream at a Great Midwestern icecream parlor in Sears Tower and in the Water Tower Pumping Station.

In Chicago, his ice cream is stocked in Marshall Field's gourmetstores, and served in store restaurants. It's also the scoop du jourin local Hyatt hotels, and at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Because of intense competition in the grocery freezers, however,it's a bit tougher to find Great Midwestern's brightly colored pints.

When Gratzon first tried to break into this market, storefreezers already were crowded by Haagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry's andSteve's. He still hasn't slid into the freezers of major Chicagochains, but Great Midwestern can be found in Foodworks and most SuperPlus stores in the city, as well as in Cub Food Stores and severalWhite Hen Pantries in the suburbs.

Gratzon always has had firm ideas on what he likes in ice cream,but he didn't always know how to make it.

When we asked for a recipe for do-it-yourselfers, Gratzonblanched. "I've never made ice cream at home," he confessed.However, his staff came up with a creamy, eggless strawberry, andGratzon added one of his secrets for fruit-full ice cream.

"Slice the berries, and mash them with the sugar," he advises,adding, "Something magical happens when the sugar sits with the fruitlike that at room temperature." FRED GRATZON'S STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM

1 cup strawberries

1 cup sugar 3 cups whipping cream

1 cup half-and-half

Extra sliced strawberries for decoration

Slice berries and mash into sugar so juice permeates sugar.

Let stand 2 hours at room temperature or overnight inrefrigerator. Mix chilled berry-sugar mixture with cream andhalf-and-half and freeze in ice cream maker according tomanufacturer's directions. Mixture can be frozen in freezer for 1 to 2 hours to reach firmerconsistency, but long-term freezing will add ice crystals. Top withextra strawberry slices before serving. Makes about 1 quart.