With the start of warmer weather, most people worry about achieving the perfect bikini body. Our mind wanders toward dessert and gelato!
Earlier this May, we were invited to a special gelato appreciation dinner for gelato aficionados and taken to a preview of the Gelato World Tour. We are told that “gelato is the way ice cream should be,” and they were prepared to defend that bold statement.
The Gelato World Tour is exactly what it is: the tour traverses the world and takes over one city at time, bringing gelato artisans together to make delicious gelato for their community. The tour has already conquered Rome, Valencia, Melbourne, Dubai, and most recently Austin, TX here in the US earlier this month, before venturing over to Berlin in August. The best gelato artisan in the world will be crowned in the final competition in Rimini, Italy in September.
The intimate dinner presentation took place at Circo in Midtown West, featuring a six course menu of both sweet and savory dishes, all accompanied with a scoop of gelato specially crafted by Luciano Ferrari, renowned Italian gelato instructor at Carpigiani Gelato University. The evening was in collaboration with Sirio Maccioni, the 2014 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award-winner of Le Cirque.
Jon Snyder, owner of Il Laboratorio del Gelato in the Lower East Side, was also there to partake in the festivities. He spoke about his love for ice cream which started at a young age in his grandparents’ Carvel store in Westchester, which blossomed further during his first trip to Italy at the age of 19. He first founded the Ciao Bella Gelato Company before opening Il Laboratorio del Gelato in 2002.
We started off with a bellini sorbetto, a white peach sorbet with Prosecco poured over. This will be my new brunch drink standard. The first dish was a pepper flan and parmesan fondue with the Merlot sorbetto atop a parmesan wafer, with a touch of balsamic reduction. A very strong and flavorful dish to start off the night.
We then enjoyed the shrimp crudo – the raw red shrimp was covered in a light, honey glaze, next to a side of salty caviar, proscuitto, and a fig salad, all paired with a thick and creamy walnut pesto gelato and blue cheese mousse.
The main dish that many were excited for was the parmesan risotto with fava beans. The creamy risotto paired perfectly with the cucumber and yogurt sorbetto. To cleanse our palette, we indulged in refreshing wild strawberry sorbetto – clean, simple, and light.
For the final part of our meal, our taste buds were put to the test and we had to earn our dessert. We were given a cheese with topped with a cherry compote, which also came with a side of six tastes of Venetian creams where we had to identify the flavors. While I failed, there were a few that correctly identified the correct fruits, which included, strawberry, raspberry, orange, and mango.
We had a great time chatting with fellow gelato lovers and certainly learned an extraordinary amount about the craft of gelato. We will certainly celebrate the art of gelato all throughout the summer! To keep up to date on all things gelato, visit www.gelatoworldtour.com.
Yours,
Von
Photos via the Gelato World Tour and by Socially Superlative
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