Okamoto Studio, Custom Ice, Ice Sculpture, Cocktails, Drinks, Rocks, Pure Ice, Design, Food, Drink, Ice Cube, Sphere, Block, Shintaro Okamoto, Creative Director, Founder, Johnny Iuzzini, Recommendation
WHO
Premiere ice sculpture and carvers.
WHY
The best cocktail bars in New York turn to them to furnish perfect “dead clear” ice.
OKAMOTO STUDIO
January 13, 2011
ICE SCULPTURE & CARVING - CREATING ICE CUBES FOR COCKTAILS - LONG ISLAND CITY, NY
“Why would you use tap water with flavors of fluoride and chlorine and all these other things that change your drink, when you could have the cleanest, purist ice and clean ice will melt at a much slower rate.”
- Johnny Iuzzini, Executive Pastry Chef at Jean Georges in New York.
OKAMOTO STUDIO ICE SCULPTURES
How do the top cocktail bars, like PDT, Little Branch, Dutch Kills, and Weather Up, and restaurants like Momofuku get perfectly clear ice? They call on ice artists Okamoto Studio in Long Island City.
Father-son team Takeo and Shintaro Okamoto are the owners of Okamoto Studio, and aside from delivering crystal clear, pure ice to the cocktail and restaurant trade, they hand-craft ice into life-like sculptures and create live performance carvings for events. Award-winning master carver Takeo Okamoto began his career as a tunnel engineer, left to become a sushi master living in Alaska. He eventually moved to New York to join his son, Shintaro, in the frozen art business and became an international ice-sculpturing champion.
What makes their ice so clear? Agitation of the water and unidirectional freezing eliminates the air bubbles, creating pristine ice.
Unfortunately, unless you have a professional machine making dead ice at home is nearly impossible. Shintaro Okamoto recommends buying large blocks of ice from your local ice sculpture studio and customizing your own cubes with tools from JB Prince. “They have really cool ice sculpturing tools. I go through ice picks so fast, that I use the cheapest ones I can find.”
For cubed square 2 inch blocks of ice, Shintaro likes the silicone King Cube Ice Trays from Williams-Sonoma. [buy here.]
Details of Shintaro Okamoto’s recommendations for ice trays and tools.
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