Let’s have some ice cream

You know how every kid dreams of having its own ice cream stand or chocolate factory so he can make and eat as much of it as possible? Well Niccolo is that kid and unlike many other dreamers, he made it come true but let me start the story from the very beginning. Niccolo Binanzi is Italian. Now this is an important fact to start with (aren’t all Italians born some kind of gourmet chefs or sommeliers) and his parents used to live in a house just next to a Gelateria in his hometown in Toscana. Naturally Niccolo was there every day trying his favourite three flavours: chocolate, hazelnut and pistachio. Later he would always measure quality of gelato only by these three which he considers as the three basic for icecream flavours.

When I ask Niccolo of his childhood, his story is abundant with appraisal for his parents, who had natural curiosity for life and its refined pleasures: art, history, culture and excellent food. This was affectionately passed to Niccolo who at the age of five was let alone to travel to Cambridge to study English and live with a local family. For the Italian “mammone” society such an act seemed almost revolutionary, even up to date.

Today Niccolo feels proud and grateful for the trust and the sense of independence his parents raised him with. They are the reason he started travelling and spending most time abroad among other cultures and trying out new things all the time. He also had the opportunity to mingle and communicate with his parents’ friends who worked in different professional fields. Being very curious Niccolo wanted to know all about their work. As for his traveling, Niccolo compares his experiences to those of Indiana Jones (more) and Charles Grey (less).

When I ask him of his ambitions he says: “I recently made one of those quizzes on FB, with the theme “Who would you be if there were no recession?!”. It come out I would have been “Saviour of the World” with a picture of the fictional “Tony” Stark (the Iron Man)! It made me laugh! Nothing more distant.
I don’t have any of such ambition. Yet, I do agree that I try to make everybody’s life a little happier by producing the best gelato many have ever tasted in a long, long time. If I can make somebody a little happier with what I do, I feel I have achieved a big part of my final goal!And this starts with me. I LOVE my gelato!”

Tsitaliya: How and when did you decide you want to become an icecream man?

Niccolo: Well, you know that Schokolato is not just a “Gelato Parlour”. It’s a bar-gelateria, as we offer everything you would expect in a quality bar-gelateria in Italy: from breakfast to aperitif, passing through a light lunch. And “gelato”, obviously! Thus, the decision is more about becoming a “gourmet Italian food” entrepreneur, rather than an “ice-cream” man!
Yet, about the “gelato”… Mmmmm. Let me think.

One of my dreams, as a boy, was entering into the delicious “gelateria” located next door to my parent’s home in Pistoia (Toscana) and scoop all the gelato I could eat at night!! I didn’t have the chance back then, but that must still mean something about my recent resolution! And – if you wonder – yes, the very first night I had produced the gelato samples in my own laboratory I was back in the gelateria at dark, scooping the gelatos I had made. You cannot imagine how happy, satisfied and proud I was. One of my childhood dreams had turned reality. This happens very few times over a lifetime!

Tsitaliya: What makes Schokolato gelateria diffrenet from others?

Niccolo: It’s an artisanal production of “gelato”. From the technical point of view it’s a typical traditional way, with pasteurization, maturity and a freezing phase. We use premium ingredients as a baseline. Pistachio is 100% from Sicily. Chocolate is Felchlin Switzerland. Milk and Cream are also Swiss.
The gelato we make at Schokolato – just like all other products, to be honest – reflect a very personal taste and heritage. The one I have developed being used to the wonderful food my mother was producing over gourmet dinners with food lovers, having my father (also a sommelier) combining it with the most exquisite wines.

There is one more thing that I am particularly proud of: to create the coldness needed to produce “gelato” there is normally a very large consumption of drinkable water, which goes wasted. Well, at Schokolato we have zero impact on the environment. All the water we use for cooling is in a closed circuit, so we keep using the same water over and over, extracting from it the heat and the energy for other purposes.

Tsitaliya: What’s the key to making the best ice cream?

Niccolo: It is not only the “making” that is important to quality of gelato. Conservation and delivery have also a big impact on the final result.
The three base ingredients for making gelato: water, sugar, a natural anti-freezing agent and air, which create the desired consistency to gelato!
The crystals of ice in the gelato should have a size of about 6 microns. You do not perceive them when you eat the gelato. You just perceive a smooth delicacy. Yet, air naturally tends to “exit” the gelato. Especially if it’s not perfectly preserved. Gelato doesn’t like light, air and temperature changes. The small ice particles re-unite themselves creating undesirable ice crumbles. This is a common problem I have found in many places around Switzerland.That’s one of the reasons why Schokolato uses a traditional way to store the “gelato”. This is hidden below our orange lids (usually extensively referred as “carapina”, which actually is the cylinder holding the gelato), so we minimize the impact of light and air on our product, while better controlling storing temperature.

Tsitaliya: What is the difference between ice cream and gelato?

Niccolo: By “Gelato” we intend a product that meets a defined range of parameters for the components that create this “frozen” cream: water, sugar, fats, other solids, …. By the American Food and Drug administration an “ice-cream” needs to have at least 12% fat to be named as such. An Italian “gelato”, instead, has usually fats going from 5% to 8%. Thus, it cannot even be officially named “ice-cream” in the US. And Italian “Maestri Gelatai” are proud of this.

That’s also why Schokolato proudly says “Gelato, alles andere ist Glac蔩 !