Five things about gelato you surely ignore
Stories and gelato fun facts to look cool at dinners
We can imagine the confusion in your brain. What is gelato? What is ice cream? What is sorbet? This is a game that mixes our knowledge about gelato and yours, are you ready?
So, let’s begin from a 101 lesson: are you able to define gelato? Let us give you a hand:
gelato is a frozen dessert of Italian origin, artisanally made by master gelato makers, using carefully researched, high-quality ingredients and traditional preparations.
Now we’re ready to reveal to you 5 Fun Facts about our masterpiece, gelato, but you will have to confess to us how many of these you knew! Let’s go, but we’re pretty sure you weren’t aware of them before!
01 Do you know who invented gelato?
Many things were told about the invention of this fancy and flavoury dessert… What we know is that gelato traces its roots all the way back to 1565, when Bernando Buontalenti entered the scene at Caterina de’ Medici court. He was a painter, architect and engineer in addition to being an amateur cook, much appreciated by the princess. He’s generally credited today as being the inventor of gelato, as he seems to be the reason for which gelato contains dairy. For the records he first introduced milk and eggs to the mixture, changing the Arabic recipe of sherbet, an ice-cream ancestor similar to Italian granita or to a vegan sorbet, introduced in Sicily many years earlier, that requires the use of up to 400 flowers to scent water and ice. When Caterina de’ Medici became Queen and wife of King Henry II, she brought the Buontalenti recipe to France, making gelato an international dessert. (source Wikipedia)
Now we can go further with a higher level question.
02 What are the best-selling gelato flavours, or rather those for which our fellas Italians would be willing to wait in line for hours?
In first place – as you can easily deduce – is chocolate. Then come hazelnut, lemon (not everybody’s all-time favourite) and then strawberry sorbet, fior di latte, stracciatella and, last but not least, pistachio. And we know it well, the motherland never abandons!
03 Why do you think most people eat artisanal gelato in the cone?
Historical facts report that, before the advent of the cone, gelato was served and tasted in glass or ceramic cups – how fancy! – expensive containers, fragile and which basically did not allow the sweet, cold tastiness to be enjoyed even on a walk. What better reason for gelato makers to come up with the idea of the cone and decree its great and definitive success: the cone is definitely better!
How true it is that we know our beloved customers, we know you want to find the best gelato in town. How can we blame you, after all, you are still our most loyal customers! So if you are in search of original gelato, avoid buying it from a gelateria which uses ice cream scoops. Ideally, gelato must be gathered up with a spade or paddle. The surface of a spade or paddle is flat and is a better fit to gently scoop up your gelato. It not only allows you to work the gelato smoothly to make it softer but it also encourages an artistic touch upon serving, such as this beautiful flower shaped gelato.
But let us stop here for a second, because we have another question for you.
04 Who’s the first American President who served gelato during an official State dinner?
American historians say that the first Presidential gelato was served already at the estate of George Washington, who spent about $200 dollars on ice cream alone during the summer of 1790, which amounts to a whopping $5000 today. But, to be exact, the first person who introduced gelato in the White House was the first lady of the United States and wife of James Madison, fourth president of America, who was a great gelato lover: gelato was still a very impressive dessert because modern freezers were not introduced yet.
05 Gelato is a complete food that brings proven benefits to mental and physical health
We all know that eating it often improves our mood; the reason is very simple: according to a study carried out at Milan University, gelato stimulates the production of serotonin, the hormone of joy, which the human body produces when it detects a positive feeling, significantly reducing stress. So what are you waiting for? Come and take your daily dose of happiness with us!
How many fun facts did you guess in the end?
It’s going to be a gelato making class unlike any other: the participants will make heart shaped cakes to celebrate the most romantic day of the year.
And there’s more…for St. Valentine’s day our Master Gelato Makers have decided to show you the secrets of a new, unique flavour! It’s a romantic, elegant and, apparently, aphrodisiac… Champagne and Strawberries gelato! By participating, you’ll get the chance to be the very first to craft it, because only lovers can understand the secrets of its recipe!
The good news don’t stop here! May was a month of ideas, projects and arrangements: we closed a lot of collaborations with many London restaurants, Italians and not, that appreciate our way of being and working. As we already told you, we love making partnerships with realities which are similar to us, and London is the right place to create successful synergies.
Gelato goes well also with refined menus, giving a really nice touch to every cooking idea. Our expert gelato-makers constantly try new and surprising combinations and in May we tested a lot: in our Bromley workshop we created the gelato cacio e pepe seasoned with bacon flakes, the carbonara, the basil sorbet, and the very special ginger and clove. To us, testing is the key to originality. We’re open to culinary project development in partnership with restaurants: we would like to create tasting sessions that mix UNICO’s proposals with the partner restaurants’ ones, to propose new combinations made by our creative Master gelato-makers and their Head chefs.