I Heart Gelato

Food-wise, I always crave and can’t get enough of:

a) Sweets b) Vegetables.

‘cause of a), being a firm believer that the best business projects are based on a high dose of passion for the scope of those businesses, I’ve always thought of starting a sweet business.

Last year, an inflight magazine listed the Carpigiani Gelato University in Anzola dell'Emilia. Of course I knew about their machines, but was an official place to train gelatieri even real?!

It made me curious. ‘Why not try a short course out?’ – I booked my plane ticket to Bologna and organised an entire trip /a short but very intense one alongside my life and travel partner/ around the Gelato Master Class I had set my eyes on.

Luck didn’t seem to be physically on my side: the plane took off some important minutes behind the scheduled time from Bucharest, the Italian officials were moving very slowly at Bologna Airport, there were no taxis outside… In the end, I managed to talk to Maéva, our passion-filled trainer, and they waited for me, which was a very nice gesture from her part and from the part of all those who were eager for the tour to start.

I was really there! In a world full of colours, space, elegance, and giant gelato pillows!

I was really there, marvelling at the cute items on sale, items that would remind me of that perfect day and of those perfect rays of sun.

…which were experienced up-close as, after going through the history of gelato, we all walked to the gelateria/laboratory. My Marcel was also there, savouring un caffè con panna; this made me happy and gave me a lot of confidence. /I don’t like or know how to cook, but I try and always remember Ratatouille because this cartoon makes me smile and cry at the same time./

A mixed but lovely Irish-Dutch-Romanian-Turkish group continued onto the Master Class. We learned some basic elements, but also some secrets, while I realised that gelato making was nothing less than Mathematics, my favourite subject during my school years. ‘Hmmm… This might work’ I told myself as I headed all geared-up into the laboratory to prepare my tangerine sorbet. I was really anxious to see if it was going to get the same creamy texture that had made me mistake dark chocolate sorbet, crema, and lemon and basil sorbet for gelato…

It felt extraordinary preparing the sorbet in the very laboratory where the other works of art were regularly made. Measuring all those amounts to the gram, squeezing the tangerines, and waiting for the machine to complete my process and my recipe… were some of the nicest experiences of my life. I felt as if I was competing in ‘Chopped’, the culinary show on Food Network I am hooked on watching.

Having that taste – finally! – put a bright smile on my tired (but happy) face. De-lish!! It all went down creamily, on a note of Lokum, tomato sorbet, and friendship.