Chef
JP Lopez
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Los Angeles, California, United States
i. Biography
JP Lopez co-founded Wanderlust Creamery in Los Angeles, a dessert business shaped with the logic of a craft studio rather than a conventional scoop shop. Founded in Tarzana, California, in 2015, the creamery was built around a controlled approach to ice cream: the right butterfat, low overrun, and layers of exotic flavors and textures. Under Lopez’s direction, the work is about balance rather than excess—creaminess held in check, richness given lift, and familiarity opened up by surprise.
The Path
California State University, Northridge was one part of the foundation before a very different line of work. In 2014, Lopez was a real estate attorney, in a field that rewards precision, analysis, and judgment. That background reads through the way Wanderlust Creamery was conceived: not as something left to impulse, but as a product built through careful decisions and exacting standards. In 2015, Lopez became co-founder of Wanderlust Creamery, the role he holds today. What started in Tarzana, California, set the terms for a project with a defined point of view—one that treats technique as seriously as imagination.
The Work Today
As co-founder of the Los Angeles creamery, Lopez continues to work from the same principles that shaped its start. The emphasis stays on proportion and structure, with attention to butterfat, low overrun, and exotic flavors and textures. Those choices give the ice cream its profile: dense but controlled, nuanced in mouthfeel, and calibrated to deliver discovery without excess. The work is built on the technical decisions behind the product, where each detail serves the larger scoop rather than sitting on top of it. It is refinement as practice, with the architecture visible in the result.
Signature
JP’s signature dishes include orange flower baklava, Filipino ube malted crunch, and Game of Cones. Together, they show the range associated with his work: floral and layered in the case of orange flower baklava, vivid and textured in Filipino ube malted crunch, and playfully titled with Game of Cones. Each one reflects the same underlying approach that shapes Wanderlust Creamery itself—flavors that move beyond the expected while still holding together with precision.
Acclaim
The defining recognition in Lopez’s career is the company he built and continues to lead. Its identity rests on the technical choices behind the ice cream rather than on a separate awards record. That matters. For Lopez, the achievement is not presented as a trophy case, but as a body of work: a creamery with a distinct point of view, sustained over time, and built on the standards that first gave it form.
Profile updated August 2026
FAQ
Asked of JP
What is JP Lopez's current role?
As of 2026, JP Lopez is co-founder.
Where did JP Lopez train or study?
JP Lopez trained at California State University, Northridge.
What is JP Lopez known for?
They pursue the right proportion of butterfat, low levels of overrun, and exotic flavors and textures.
