Oregon Business Magazine - March 2024

I’d just grab a few pieces of frozen blue cheese and eat them because they don’t really ever freeze,” Masoni says. “When I was talking with Kim, we were brainstorming, and I was like, ‘I have this idea for a pear and blue cheese ice cream.’” Masoni whipped up a batch for the Maleks; for the first few months it was open, the FIC also served as Salt & Straw’s manufacturing site. “I was driving over every night, making it in the morning, driving over at night, scooping, and then over and over again,” Malek says. “As we were kind of creating flavors through our first summer, Sarah’s office was a few rows down. I’d go knock on her door [and say], ‘This thing isn’t freezing right. What am I doing?’” John Boyle, merchandising manager for Market of Choice, tells OB he’s also sent vendors to the FIC if he thinks they’re onto something but their products need a little fine tuning. Masoni also introduces vendors to Boyle if she thinks they have something he might want to put on the shelf. Chris Spencer, founder and CEO of Keto Pint — a high-protein, no-sugar-added ice cream — says Masoni was instrumental in both teaching him how to make ice cream and how to create a formula that would meet the nutritional goals that he was shooting for, and would also taste good enough to sell. And then she introduced him to Boyle, making Market of Choice the first store to put Keto Pints on the shelves. (Spencer also coined the phrase “million-dollar palate” in reference to Masoni.) Malek and Boyle are quick to point out that few places have a resource like the FIC: “This is like high level R&D,” Malek says. “This is knowledge that typically is only afforded to billion-dollar-plus companies.” “Oregon has an incredibly, incredibly vibrant local food system. We’re super fortunate to have people like Sarah and the different incubators and groups that are out there helping,” Boyle says. “I’ve worked across the country and never seen it anywhere else, where you have makers helping makers, and retailers helping retailers and introducing people. There are so many barriers that exist for entrepreneurs, but to know that, in Oregon, specifically based on my experience, there are all these systems working in harmony and people who have their back: It’s just something that doesn’t exist anywhere else.” Many of Masoni’s success stories involve ice cream, and that’s not an accident. It’s been her favorite thing since she was a child visiting her family’s dairy in Grants Pass, grabbing ice cream sandwiches and Fudgesicles out of the freezer. “Those were the two things my mouth liked,” Masoni says, laughing. She’s also always cooking at home. “I really look at food as my art, because that’s my training,” Masoni says. “I look at color, flavor, texture. It’s like mixed media. You need a little crunchy, salty, a little acid. All those things that you hear chefs talk about are the same things that I look for in a food product — and that I try and do in my own kitchen.” While Masoni is frequently described as kind and disarming, and while her sense of humor occasionally tends toward self-deprecation, she knows what she’s done for Oregon’s food community; she doesn’t feign modesty. “It’s hard for me to talk about myself, but when somebody asks me, I like to talk about myself, you know what I mean?” she says. “It’s fun to kind of think through all the things you’ve done—and it’s real. It’s not made up. Like, don’t gaslight me. Don’t gaslight me for the work I’ve done. It’s been from my heart and it’s been a commitment to the whole community.” Sarah Masoni stands in front of a wall of signature Oregon food products, many developed at OSU’s Food Innovation Center. 27

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