Articles come out in the paper every summer citing studies that confirm how good it is for you. In America, ice cream somehow carries a vague atmosphere of sin – calories! Fat! Self-indulgence! Bad, but I’m going to eat it anyway! In Italy, artisanal gelato is practically a health food.
But the biggest difference may be their emotional payload. Gelato is also softer and even slightly warmer than ice cream. Gelato and ice cream are close cousins, but they are not twins the main difference is their amount of fat, sugar and air (strange as it may seem, your exquisitely creamy cup of gelato has less of all three). (For the whole history, see our sidebar, “ The Quest for Cool.“) It’s beyond dispute, though, that the apotheosis of this humble mixture was achieved several hundred years ago by the Italians, who gave it an equally simple name: “Gelato.” “Frozen.” Traditional gelato is so elementary that conflicting claims persist as to who thought it up it seems to have developed by steps over the years, in the hands of many people. The ingredients to his particular form of \genius are ridiculously simple: Frozen milk, cream, sugar and, if you like, some sort of flavoring. And in February, 2016, Andrea completed an innovative course in tasting which has essentially made him a sommelier of gelato. He is understandably pleased to have won second place in 20 at the annual “Sherbeth International Festival of Artisanal Gelato,” a big event in the gelato world, and second place in 20 on the “100 Best Artisanal Gelaterie” list sifted out by the food magazine Dissapore. Andrea usually figures prominently among them. There are competitions and prizes, of course, and lots of “best” lists come out every year.
The Quest for Cool: the story of gelato's evolution “It’s one of the few foods that make you smile instantly,” Andrea says. A very little girl came in and just began to yell from excitement. People smiled at the mere sight of the Soban gelato case.
I’ve seen confusion in my time, but it’s not often so happy. Andrea works hard to make his gelato, and he and his parents work even harder dishing it up when school lets out. I forgot to include “smiling” on this list. “If the gelato rises above the metal edge of the freezing compartment,” Andrea warns, “that means it isn’t a good gelato.” (Why? Because that much exposure to warm air requires an excess of stabilizers.) Nor should gelato be too sweet, make you inordinately thirsty, melt too quickly, or feel greasy on the tongue. And for reasons that will soon be explained, you can thank the gelatieri of Zoldo that you’ve got that quart on hand at midnight when you learn that your boyfriend cheated on you. This little moment introduces the basic keywords to Andrea’s life: “Gelato,” which is not exactly the same thing as ice cream “Italy,” which is gelato’s homeland and “family.” Other Italian families might make gelato, but Andrea’s mother comes from the Zoldo valley in the Italian Dolomites. We were sitting in his family’s gelateria in Valenza, Italy, in the Piemonte Region halfway between Milan and Torino, and he was smiling as he spoke.“My parents met when they were teenagers working in a gelateria in Germany.” Those two years he spent studying law? Futile. “It’s the fault of gelato that I was born,” says Andrea Soban. In February, 2016, he completed an innovative course in tasting which has essentially made him a sommelier of gelato. So I went hunting for a bona fide gelato virtuoso. \Seeing that it’s everywhere in Italy, it seemed fair to conclude that gelato’s magic is well understood here by at least a few people. Somebody might still be trying to find the secret of turning straw into gold, but transforming milk into bliss is happening every day-a work that seems like magic. It’s like food from a fable – beguiling, irresistible, working its charms in countries and cultures around the world.
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