An Old Favorite Gets New Attention
Gelato Catches the Eye and Appetite of America
by Chris Ryan
photographs by Ness/ Pace Studio

Biting into Chocolate Chip Mint gelato from Staccato Gelato in Portland, Ore., a few things are obvious. The gelato is creamy. The gelato is flavorful. And the gelato is wedged in a small bowl next to Chocolate gelato, which means another taste sensation, and possibly a headache from all the cold goodness, is right around the corner. The establishment has a welcoming interior full of brightly colored walls and funky furniture, but that isn't what brings people in-it's the gelato. "A lot of our customers tell us, 'We love you the best,' says Sarah Holliday, co-owner of Staccato Gelato. "For the most part, people really seem to be happy with us," a sentiment that is echoed by gelato makers around the country right now.
   It's a consensus among those in the gelato industry that their business has been increasing recently as Americans become more familiar with gelato. "Gelato is just exploding in the United States right now," says Roberto Bresciani, co-owner of Bravissimo Gelato Machine Co. "A lot of people have traveled to Italy, and they are discovering it. They are falling in love with it, and they want to bring it home."

What is Gelato?
"Gelato" is an Italian word that means ice cream. And it is, quite simply, Italian ice cream. It's usually a combination of water, milk, flavorings, sweeteners and a stabilizing agent that are pasteurized then super-cooled to create a frozen dessert. A few gelato flavors popular in the United States are hazelnut, pistachio, strawberry and raspberry. However, gelato is not the same as the ice cream that is popular in the states. Gelato is lower in fat, more dense and doesn't have as much overrun, which is the air that is blown into ice cream.
   "All [gelato] really is is ice cream before the American Industrial Revolution got a hold of it," says Pete Palazzolo, President/CEO of Palazzolo's Artisan Gelato and Sorbet.
   "Because during the American Industrial Revolution, they developed machines for profit and they figured out a way to blow air into ice cream. Almost every ice cream on the shelf in the grocery store is at least 80 to 120 percent overrun, or 50 to 60 percent air." Palazzolo says gelato is twice as dense as ice cream, so it is much creamier for its density, which allows gelato makers to create a flavorful product without having to use as much butterfat.
Boris Ghazarian, owner of Aromi d'Italia, a gelato company that has its headquarters in Glen Burnie, Md., says ice cream needs a minimum of 10 percent butterfat to be considered ice cream and 14 percent to be considered premium ice cream, whereas gelato naturally has four to seven percent butterfat. And some of the fruit-based gelatos have even less butterfat than that.
   Some in the gelato industry think that because gelato and ice cream have so many differences, they should be able to co-exist on the market. "I feel that gelato is an alternative to ice cream," says Marco Casol, general manager of PreGel USA, which makes pastes, powders and flavors for gelato and other desserts. "It's not here to substitute for ice cream. It meets the expectations of a very health-focused target. Gelato is a natural product, low in fat and in calories, very unique in its creaminess and smoothness, and very intense in the flavor perception. A different experience than ice cream, definitely."

Gelato's U.S. Rise
Gelato has been adored in Italy for quite some time, but its increase in popularity in the United States has only happened in the past few years. "We're finding that the [U.S. gelato] market is really, really growing," says Bob Bruno, President of Belizio Fine Foods, the sales and marketing agency for gelato maker Fabbri in the United States. "Even up to the recent past, people needed to have the word gelato defined. Today, it seems to be pretty well known that it means Italian ice cream."
   Many U.S. cities are seeing the number of gelato shops multiply. For Staccato Gelato, they've gone from being the only gelato shop in Portland to being one of several. "I think considering that there's six or maybe seven gelato shops in Portland now, it obviously shows that the market has been improving," co-owner Holliday says.
   Recognition for gelato is also coming from some surprising places. In July 2004, Oprah Winfrey gave the frozen dessert some publicity when she put Palazzolo's on the "O List" of her magazine, O. "It was a true honor," Palazzolo says. "I didn't even know about the O List before they called me."

The Coffee Connection
One of the things benefiting gelato in the United States is its association with the coffee industry. Palazzolo says he approached coffeehouses about 10 years ago and pitched the idea of selling his gelato in their shops, but he couldn't find any takers. Now, however, Palazzolo is getting a lot of calls from coffeehouses that want to add gelato cases and start selling the dessert. "The last three years, there's been a major spike [in the gelato market]," Palazzolo says. "A majority of it is coffee shops adding a gelato case." The frozen treat has gotten bigger along with coffee items. "Gelato right now is becoming the second-largest trend after espresso and cappuccino in the country," says Ghazarian.
   The pairing of espresso and gelato is one that makes sense: Not only do they originate from the same place, but they taste good together. "Coffee and gelato go perfectly together, hand in hand, and there are an immense number of profit stories in Europe about that," says Casol. "The combination is great in itself, and it gives room to a huge amount of new creations, even combining gelato with coffee."
   Water Street Coffee Joint in Kalamazoo, Mich., is one coffeehouse experimenting with combining gelato and coffee. "We do what we call espresso a la mode," says Christine Horton, General Manager at Water Street. "We take a scoop of vanilla gelato and then top it with espresso-a fresh, hot cup of espresso. We also do espresso shakes. We take different flavors of the gelatos and then make like a milkshake but add espresso to it. Really, is there any better combination than coffee and ice cream?" Including gelato in a coffeehouse also can improve the feel of the shop. Horton says having a gelato case at Water Street has made a big difference. "It really affects the ambience of the place because you walk in the door and you see these gorgeous gelatos. They're colorful, they're just super beautiful and delicious-looking," she says.

A Brief History of Gelato
Gelato is a tradition that goes back a long way, though not in its current form. In ancient China, ingredients were put into snow, and once frozen, they were combined with rice and milk to create a frozen dessert. Techniques similar to those also were used in the Middle East and parts of Europe. A version of gelato similar to its current incarnation was introduced to Italy around the 16th century. It was consumed only by the royal families for a couple of centuries before the recipes became known to the public. Artisans then began refining their craft, and gelato became a tradition in Italy. It was "a custom that started centuries ago throughout the mountains in Italy," says Ghazarian. "Then [it] expanded to rest of the country and certainly in surrounding countries." Gradually, Italians who came to the United States saw a market for gelato, and the dessert started to appear in America.

Methods of Making It
   The gelato that is sold in the United States comes in many forms. Because there are no guidelines in the United States about how to make gelato, different makers use different approaches. The most common, and most traditional, way to make gelato is the hot process. In this process, the ingredients are put into a pasteurizer, which cooks the mixture at a temperature that destroys any harmful organisms without any major chemical changes to the mixture. Once the mixture is pasteurized, it is frozen, and once it freezes, it's gelato. One product made by Bresciani's company, Bravissimo Gelato Machine Co., is the Trittico system, which combines the cooking and cooling processes. The machine pasteurizes the gelato base, then freezes it in the same machine. "Whereas a lot of gelato machines you have to get a separate pasteurizer and then a separate freezer, so you gotta do all that running around," Bresciani says. Whether it's done as part of the Trittico system or not, pasteurizing gelato is an important part of the process in the eyes of some gelato makers. "True artisan gelato must be made in this way," he says. "You must pasteurize the base."
   Another way to make gelato is by using the cold process, which does not involve a pasteurizer, thus is looked down upon by some gelato makers. Ghazarian says that in the cold process, "You get a batter mix, you put milk in it, and your flavors, mix it and put it in a batch freezer and get a product." He said this process does not make a great gelato. "Certainly the product quality is not as good as it should be," he says.
   Bresciani agrees that the cold process is not the way to go when making gelato. "Each flavor that you do has to have a custom base, customized base, and it must go through the heating and cooling process," he says. "You can't just freeze it. It's not real gelato. It's a shortcut." However, Casol of PreGel USA says the cold process is an acceptable way to use gelato and is as common as the hot process. "By now, in Italy, probably 50 percent are using the hot process and 50 percent the cold process," Casol says.
   Because pasteurizers are not legal everywhere, some retail stores make their gelato without the pastteurization process. At Staccato Gelato, they get their cream and egg base from a dairy company, then add flavors from there.
   Another way that gelato is made is with a pre-made mix. In addition to its other gelato products, Fabbri recently introduced a product called iperfrutta, which becomes gelato when milk or water are added. "The flavoring's there, the sweetening agent, the stabilizers, the emulsifiers, everything's in this jar," Bruno says. "All you need to do is add either the milk or the water." He says that the iperfrutta way of making gelato simplifies things, which is what some gelato makers are looking for. "New clients are considering putting gelato into their stores," Bruno says. "Whereas before they wouldn't because they just didn't want to get involved with all the traditional way of measuring and weighing stuff. There's not really a recipe, it's just follow the directions, which is great."

Quality Linked to Success
One thing that most everyone in the gelato industry agrees on is that quality makes all the difference with gelato. "The quality is the key for success," Casol of PreGel USA says. "We are very committed to the quality."
   At Fabbri, part of that quality comes from choosing the right ingredients-which includes sometimes having to go to far-off places to get what they want. "The [Fabbri] family is very involved with the buying aspect, selecting and procuring the best fruits, and, of course, the nuts, things that go into the nut pastes, and other ingredients like chocolate," says Bruno. "The fruit ... comes either from Europe itself or is brought in from other markets ... it could be any and all continents. Same thing with the nuts."
   For Palazzolo's, using fresh ingredients is a key part of achieving the desired flavor. "To do it the artisan way, that means that I'm flavoring it from the actual real ingredients," Palazzolo says. "Pistachio from pistachios and Raspberry from raspberries and Mint from actual mint leaves."
   Horton, who serves Palazzolo's gelato at Water Street, agrees that his processes produce a quality product. "I really think that once people try them, they'll come back for them because they're that good," Horton says. "I think the higher-end product, like what we're using, is so phenomenally different from what people are used to." Bresciani agrees that quality is key. He thinks as the market matures, the producers of the best-tasting gelato will rise to the top. "As with anything, as the [gelato] market matures, people and consumers are going to be drawn toward quality when they recognize it," he says.

The Future of Gelato
Gelato shops are opening around the country, and coffee shops are adding gelato cases at a consistent rate. But gelato also is receiving a boost from training programs organized by gelato companies. Aromi d'Italia created a training program for chefs who want to learn to make gelato. Ghazarian says they focus on aspects such as the process, the design, the ingredients and more. He says 70 percent to 80 percent of the school's attendees end up involved with gelato in some way, and the classes are often sold out months in advance.
   Similarly, PreGel USA has a training facility in Charlotte, N.C., where they train people who want to sell gelato. And while more skilled gelato experts are hitting the streets everyday, the industry may get a big boost from something else entirely.
   Bresciani says that some major ice cream companies are considering trying their hand at gelato. "There's a lot of large chains that are looking at gelato right now, a lot of major U.S. companies that are considering doing it," Bresciani says. "I think it could get bigger once the major players are doing it." This can only mean one thing: The headache you get from eating too much gelato will become a familiar feeling to more Americans.