In the 2000s, the English chef Heston Blumenthal experimented with ice cream, making a custard similar to scrambled eggs and adding bacon to create one of his signature dishes.

This creates pockets of egg flavour in the ice cream, which release as it melts in customers' mouths.

[9] [Blumenthal's] bacon and egg ice cream came about through his interest in "flavour encapsulation": the principle of which means a single coffee bean crushed in your teeth while drinking hot water will taste much more of coffee than the same crushed bean dissolved in the water.

[7] Blumenthal's bacon-and-egg ice cream, now one of his signature dishes,[11] along with his other unique flavours, has given him a reputation as "The Wizard of Odd" and has made his restaurant a magnet for food enthusiasts.

Blumenthal has stated that one ambition is to create an ice cream with flavours released in time-separated stages; for example, bacon and egg followed by orange juice or tea.

The ice cream is served with caramelised French toast, a tomato compote, a slice of pancetta hardened with maple syrup, and tea jelly.

[16] Blumenthal has since updated his recipe to include ten hours of soaking the bacon in a vacuum-packed bag before baking.

He has also changed the presentation so that the unfrozen ice cream is injected into empty egg shells, then dramatically scrambled at the customer's table in liquid nitrogen, giving the impression of cooking.

[17] Bacon ice cream has received a mixed reception; as a combination of sweet and savoury flavours, it was designed to be controversial.

[18] Trevor White has suggested that Blumenthal had latched onto a culture where diners cannot get enough of the new and are spoiled by choice, comparing the food to a "freak show".

He felt that his flavours differentiated him from the many other parlours on the shore and many people come in to try bacon ice cream only to buy something else.

For example, it appears on the menu at Espai Sucre in Barcelona, a restaurant that specialises in desserts, with descriptions such as "innovative" and "spectacular".

In 2006, two separate contestants created versions of bacon ice cream in the reality series Top Chef.