Making Gelato is quite an interesting profession, but no less demanding. You only truly understand its joys and sorrows once you work in the trade…
Calling Gelato ice cream may seem familiar, but to Italians, gelato is not ice cream because it contains no water, so it does not freeze solid or become as ice-cold as ordinary ice cream.
Gelato is originally a speciality of Italy. Wherever Italians go, they will eat ice cream, only to shake their heads afterwards because only in Italy Gelato is the real Gelato, and the tastiest and cheapest.
Making gelato is quite an interesting profession. I feel I was “meant” to meet my husband, who sold ice cream and whose father made ice cream—the whole family made ice cream.
Our family has an ice-cream shop in the Liguria coastal region of Italy and a mobile ice-cream van in northern Germany. In Italy, the shop is open from mid-March to the end of October, depending on the weather each year. In Germany, we sell ice cream from April to the end of September because it is colder there.
The high season in Germany is April, May and June, while in Italy it is July, August and September. As this is the summer holiday period, Germans often go on holiday to Mediterranean countries, most commonly Italy.
There are many schools in Italy specialising solely in gelato. It sounds simple—just learn the recipe, pour it into the machine, press the button and let it run—but in reality, it is nothing like that. Italian-standard gelato machines alone are very expensive, averaging 30.000-50.000 euros depending on capacity.
Authentic Gelato is made only from clean, naturally sourced ingredients, with no preservatives, additives or chemicals. In particular, most of the flavours in gelato
are created from fresh fruit, which means that the flavour and colour perceived in gelato are always genuine and natural, rather than the perfect taste produced by artificial chemical flavourings in ordinary ice cream. Eatinggelato , you do not get the biting cold sensation of ice cream; instead, you experience a coolness that gradually melts away, gently and smoothly. Gelato
is even less like other types of ice cream because of its high density and smoothness, and its fat content is only from 0-8%. To successfully make authentic gelato , the maker must carefully calculate the balance of sweetness and richness, using no artificial stabilisers in order to preserve the gelato’s softness and smoothness. Even a little more than necessary will cause the gelato to freeze solid or melt easily. If you put a scoop of gelato with ice crystals in your mouth, that means it is gelato
can be stored for a maximum of 10 days at temperatures from -12°C to -15°C, while ordinary ice cream must be kept at -23°C and can therefore be stored for an entire year.
Although my husband’s father made ice cream, my husband still had to go to Rome to study the trade for 1 month and learn the basic techniques. As my father-in-law had worked in the profession for many years, he could tell just by looking or by feel whether the texture and consistency were right, so it was very difficult to pass the craft on to others. In practice, the temperature must be checked every day so that the refrigerator temperature can be adjusted appropriately. If it is too cold, the gelato will freeze; if it is too warm, it will melt. On rainy days, when humidity is high, you have to be careful that moisture in the air does not condense into ice, or gelato will lose its flavour… You then calculate the required ingredients according to the season and region to create suitable flavours. That is why gelato
makers in Italy are also called artists. The gelato
trade is extremely demanding and arduous during the high season. My father, who is 70 years old, works every day from 8am until 2am the following morning, returning home for only about 1 hour of rest to recover.
When the shop is busy in peak season, it is even harder because the weather is hot and there is no air conditioning, as the shop has an open-plan design. At such times, everyone comes home exhausted and worn out, so it is easy to become irritable. Not to mention watching people go out, wear bikinis and swim in the sea while you have to stand continuously behind the counter working in the heat—it is truly not pleasant at all.
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I remember one time when the shop was too busy and we were short-staffed, so everyone was exhausted. Then an order was mixed up and the customer complained, making things even worse. In the end, everyone had to close the shop early to “restore order” inside first. |
People in the profession must check the temperature every day to adjust the refrigerator temperature appropriately. If it is too cold, the gelato will freeze, while if it is too warm, it will melt - Photo: NVCC The gelato
trade depends most heavily on the weather. If it is too hot, customers mainly go to the beach to swim or relax by the pool, while if the weather is rainy and cold, no one eats ice cream either. So in some seasons the business earns well, while in others it only covers the costs.
When you think about it, seasonal work is no different from working all year round because you work continuously, with no public holidays, Saturdays or Sundays off like office workers, and no 8-hour working day. On busy days, you work until the last customer has left before closing. So even when they are ill or tired, makers have to carry on and wait until winter to rest. But the greatest pleasure of this profession is having time in winter to wander around and enjoy yourself, making up for the hard-working days. My parents travel to one country, my siblings and their children go skiing, while my husband and I usually wander around Southeast Asia and return to Vietnam for Tết… The whole extended family escapes the cold for the entire winter, then returns to continue working for the new.
My husband's family is from a coastal area, so almost everyone there works seasonally like this. When the season ends, the first question we always ask each other is: Where are you planning to go on holiday this year?
Every profession is a matter of fate. I believe that a profession chooses the person, rather than the person choosing the profession. Nothing is simple or easy, but watching people who love what they do is always incredibly interesting and inspiring. So we simply enjoy ourselves and keep trying with this vocation we have been drawn to.
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