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BRICK TOWNSHIP — Three 350 pound blocks of ice were sculpted in the shape of Frosty the snowman, Rudolph the rednosed reindeer and a snowflake at the boardwalk at Brick Plaza by an ice sculpting business owned and operated by Kevin O’Malley. Mr. O’Malley shared laughs and told stories with a crowd of about 25 adults and children early on Sunday morning while sculpting his friend Frosty the Snowman. He began by using a chisel to draw the hat and face of Frosty and then began the three dimensional sculpting aspect by using a die grinder in a process known as bulking out the piece. During his presentation, which took place around 10 a.m., members of the public asked him about his experiences working with ice. He said he began sculpting in 1978 and explained that he has become familiar with multiple tools used in the process of ice sculpting including a chainsaw, chisel and specialty tools. He said, “this is our first time doing this in Brick and we usually do it for shopping centers.” Mr. O’Malley said that he had done sculpting for professional organizations including for the New Jersey Devils. He said that he also works as a culinary teacher and chef while operating his business that travels around the state. After the finishing touches were put on Frosty, an assistant of his business, Walter Guia sculpted Rudolph using a chisel and chainsaw. During the demonstration, children gathered and sat on the ground to watch holiday characters be carved out of the solid ice blocks.
TINTON FALLS - It’s 88 degrees with stifling humidity outside, but that’s not a problem for Kevin O’Malley. He has what must be the coldest workplace at the Jersey Shore, and maybe anywhere. The Colts Neck resident spends his days in a 5-degree warehouse-sized freezer on Route 33. His unusual, fascinating job: full-time ice sculptor. “You have to be a certain kind of animal to work in here for eight hours a day,” O’Malley told a reporter and photographer who were fighting off frostbite after 45 minutes inside his lair. “It’s like living in your freezer at home.” O’Malley’s attire on this day: a winter jacket, hooded sweatshirt, baseball cap, gloves, sneakers and … wait for it … shorts. “Once I start working, I build up heat and I don’t even think about it,” he said. “My wife calls me Mr. Freeze.” From Muhammad Ali to MTV O’Malley got hooked on ice sculpting while attending the Culinary Institute of America in the 1970s. He then landed a job with Hilton running a cold kitchen — carving fruits, vegetables and ice. On one occasion, the Meadowlands Hilton commissioned an ice bust of Muhammad Ali for a visit by The Greatest. Faces, O’Malley said, are the hardest thing to carve. “I did it from the waist up, with boxing gloves,” O’Malley recalled. “He (Ali) comes in, leans against the wall and goes, ‘Not bad.’” Eventually O’Malley opened his own business, contracting with banquet facilities throughout Central Jersey. He said there are just two other full-time ice sculptors in the state — one in the north, the other in the south. “Kevin is really an artist,” said Hassan Mohamed, executive chef at Clark’s Landing in Point Pleasant Beach. “He has such a passion for the job.” So high is Mohamed’s confidence in O’Malley that he lets brides and grooms pick whatever design they want for their ice sculpture. “They give me weird things sometimes,” he said. “One bride loved her dog and she wanted the ice sculpture at her wedding to picture the dog,” Mohamed said. “I gave a picture to Kevin and he did it. If you looked at the sculpture and the picture of the dog, it was almost the same. At the wedding everyone was looking at the ice sculpture and saying, ‘Wow, this is Michelle’s dog.’” In November, O’Malley created the giant “ice bar” used at the MTV-aired wedding of former "Jersey Shore" cast member Angelina Pivarnick. Last week, among his handful of orders was a luge run for a Penn State graduation party, complete with the blue Nittany Lion logo and the school-slogan words “We Are.” O’Malley drilled a hole through the ice for the booze to slalom down, so it comes out cold. In a sanitary nod to COVID-19, he built in a spout that shoots the libation out into a small cup — so revelers don’t press their lips against the ice. Luges are the only occasional request O’Malley gets from family members. “They don’t want it fancy,” he said. “Just something where you put the liquor down there and it makes it cold.” Imagine having Emeril Lagasse as an uncle but only asking him to grill hot dogs. “It’s like a shoemaker who walks around with holes in their shoes," O'Malley said. Chainsaws and chisels O’Malley’s frozen workshop is situated in the warehouse of Ice King & Cold Storage, a leading supplier of ice to Monmouth County's shore towns. His medium is a 325-pound block of ice that is 42 inches long, 22 inches wide and 11 inches deep. The ice is made of filtered water, which gets the best results, and carving it in the freezer — as opposed to outside — prevents cracking. His chief tools are a marker (a special kind that doesn’t smear), chisel, drill and chainsaw. “They have machines that do a lot of this stuff now, but I’m old-school,” he said. “I love hand-carving. I love the feel of creating, hands-on.” O’Malley passes that preference along to students at Hudson County Community College’s Culinary Arts Institute, where he's a longtime professor. His one concession to modernity, with students, is using a battery-powered chainsaw. No cord, less hassle. “My No. 1 thing (to teach) is safety,” he said, “because you’re working with chainsaws, you’re working with 300-pound blocks of ice, on slippery floors.” For the record, the thermostat at his home is set to 74. “Sometimes,” he said, “if I get the shivers at night, I know I was in the freezer too long.”
SWIMMING RIVER LIFE
MARCH 2014
SHREWSBURY — Describing Kevin O'Malley's job as "cool" is (pardon the pun) just the tip of the iceberg. He spends hours in ski pants, parka, wool hat, and gloves using a chainsaw and carving tools while working on 300-pound ice blocks in a freezer. What's cooler than that? O'Malley, a resident of Colts Neck, turns ice into spectacular works of art to grace weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, christenings, bar mitzvahs, and special parties. He works in a 20-degree room at Ice King and Cold Storage in Neptune, a company that manufactures 250,000 pounds of ice daily. One of two professional ice sculptors in New Jersey, O'Malley has come a long way since graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. His first executive chef promoted him to garde manger chef (responsible for cold food, among other things) and sent him on the road to learn the art of food and ice sculpting. "You learn by watching, and then trial and error," O'Malley said with a smile. "One of my first ice swans had such a long neck, a co-worker thought it was an elephant." The "Wow" Factor The "wow" factor in ice sculpture is all in the detail, "and that takes the time," O'Malley said. He works with finer and finer tools to get the detail to a point where he is satisfied. When the work is finished, getting it to the site and displayed can be a logistical challenge. "Most times we are talking about 200 pounds-plus, which costs several hundred dollars," O'Malley said, "and I move it with a special life to the site and set it up for display or move it to a hotel freezer." During O'Malley's career, his work has graced buffet tables and special events at upscale hotels and exclusive restaurants like the Pegasus Restaurant at the Meadowlands and New York's Rainbow Room. In mid-January, O'Malley was working on several Super Bowl ice sculptures for parties in and around the Meadowlands site. But, with only two professionals in the business from Cape May to North Jersey, and a clientele that appreciates his skill, expect O'Malley to be buying more gloves and hats to stay warm in the freezer before retiring anytime soon. Articles and photos courtesy of community contributor Art Petrosemolo, a visual journalist who resides in Shewsbury, NJ. Swimming River Life, March 2014
