TV screams for ice cream
Food Network features valley ice cream queen
By MEGAN THOMAS
Express Staff Writer
Toni Deskins scoops her homemade vanilla ice cream for crews filming her story of success. Photo by Willy Cook
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Throughout the summer ice cream enthusiasts catch Toni Deskins on her customized tricycle pedaling her dessert delicacy throughout the valley. Now, fans of Toni?s Ice Cream can catch the valley?s ice cream entrepreneur on the Food Network?s ?Recipe for Success.?
This week the network focused their cameras on Deskins of Hailey?the Wood River Valley?s ice cream queen?for its program ?Recipe for Success.? The show features the stories of individuals who left mainstream careers to pursue professional food businesses.
?It?s a food business show all about inspirational people who ditched their day jobs and went into the food business, Toni fits right in,? explained Marlie Hall, the host of the show.
The ?Recipe for Success? crew followed Deskins throughout Ketchum and Sun Valley, featuring her at The Community School, Sushi on Second and Atkinsons? Market. The program will air later this fall.
Before opening Toni?s Ice Cream, Deskins taught at The Community School. She worked at the elementary school as a teaching assistant and a substitute teacher. Then her career expanded full time into the ice cream business.
?We wanted to keep her. We all loved her,? Leslie Maksik, director of the elementary school,said.
On Monday morning Deskins demonstrated her enthusiasm for children as she scooped vanilla ice cream for Mary Rosen?s first-grade class. She topped each scoop with hot fudge for the group of elementary students, who patiently posed for the cameras throughout the morning.
?They are pretty tired, we?ve been doing this for quite some time, but they are doing great,? Rosen said.
The children practiced their penmanship and answered questions for the cameras as the television crew documented Deskins? success story.
Deskins? shift from educator to ice cream maker began through her job at Sushi on Second. While working at the restaurant Deskins started making ice cream.
Now, approximately a dozen local restaurants feature her frozen flavors. Valley grocers and the Boise Co-Op also sell cartons of Toni?s ice cream.
According to producer Laurie Hepburn, the Food Network plans to feature Deskins? story this fall. ?Recipe for Success? airs weekly on The Food Network, channel 50, at 10:30 p.m.