simple gelato
Italian cuisine is characterized by its simplicity, with many dishes having only a few ingredients, cooks rely mainly on the quality, the freshness, and the quantity of the ingredients rather than on a elaborate preparation. Gelato is no exception.
So at the end it’s all about fresh ingredients and properly balanced recipes because a product, in order to be called gelato and respect Italian tradition, is supposed to have all the main ingredients: milk (or water for sorbets), sugar, fat, milk solids not fat (MSNF), solids, and air, in a certain amount range since it affects the flavor and the texture, changing the whole customer experience.
ingredients = quality
We believe we don’t have to mention we only use fresh milk, fresh cream, and fresh fruit, that we don’t use any ready-to-use mix, and that we make all our gelato in house because that’s really the minimum a gelato shop should do.
We’d like to focus more on the uniqueness of the other ingredients we use, such as the Bronte Pistachio (from Sicily) and Piedmont Hazelnut (from northern Italy) we import directly from the very same people who have the plantations, and they also are beautiful people we personally know and there are no doubts about the passion and love they put into their work. Both nuts are known to be the best in the world, and the flavor’s richness is impressive.
We also use single origin chocolate denominated "Fino de Aroma", and only 8% of the cocoa produced in the world is ranked Fino de Aroma by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).
For the vanilla flavor we use Bourbon vanilla beans, also called Gourmet, from Madagascar; for the Custard only pasture-raised organic egg yolks that are orange thanks to the hens’ better living conditions and nutrition; the Espresso Coffee flavor is made with a lot of authentic Italian espresso.
All the flavors that require some sort of biscuit, such us Cheesecake’s crust, cookies for the Cookies ’n Cream, Tiramisu’s ladyfingers, Cannoli’s shells, etc, are made in house, same goes with all the fruit sauces.
Gastronomical flavors such as Parmigiano Reggiano, Gorgonzola, and Olive Oil, are made using only DOP trademark ingredients (Protected Designation of Origin), butter is French and produced mostly by hand and, last but not least, salt is from England, family produced since 1882 in a costal town.
Even flavors that require a lot of time time to be made such as Salted Caramel, Hokey Pokey, Churro, Dulce de Leche, and Black Sesame, are completely made from scratch in house, preparing and cooking all ingredients.
Regarding the sorbets, we do our best to use as much American fruits as possible, always giving priority to the Californian products to promote and sustain local farms.
recipes = quantity
Anyway ingredients are only half of the job, as we previously mentioned recipes also play their important part because if they’re not properly balanced and you don’t use enough of a certain ingredient, maybe because it’s expensive and you want to save money, the flavor will always be bland and barely recognizable, and gelato is supposed to be a flavor explosion for your taste buds as soon as you taste it.
We study and develop custom recipes for each flavor depending on the nutritional values and properties of the main ingredient in order to make it stand out as much as possible, and this of course wouldn’t be the same using a single base for all flavors. This allows us to make a gelato very rich in flavor, and the majority of the new customers are always pleasantly surprised by the flavor intensity, and when they tell us they feel like they’re having a gelato in Italy, well, that makes us very proud!
less is more, and healthier
We make gelato using only the basic ingredients actually needed to give it a proper balance so the texture is dense, creamy and smooth, and the flavor distinctive and intense.
Good things are simple, and since gelato has fewer calories, sugar, and fat than regular ice cream, is also healthier!
gluten-free & vegan friendly
Everybody should be able to enjoy a gelato, for this reason we are proud to be 100% gluten-free: all the flour we use is gluten-free in order to avoid any possible kind of cross-contamination. Waffle cones, cookies, brownies, tiramisu, cheesecake, it doesn’t matter whether they are a gelato flavor or a pastry, they are all gluten-free!
We also keep working hard to expand our dairy-free and vegan offer: all the fruity flavors are vegan because they are sorbets, but we also make dairy-free and vegan versions of the Bronte Pistachio, Piedmont Hazelnut, Chocolate, Stracciatella, and Cookies ’n Cream, and also several of our international inspired flavors are dairy-free and vegan as well.
Oh, we almost forgot about our homemade waffle cones that, besides being gluten-free, are dairy-free and vegan as well!
not just traditional flavors
What we love about Los Angeles is that being a very multi-ethnic city, integrates languages and traditions from all over the world, and of course also foods! This environment entice us to try new ingredients and make flavors that probably you wouldn’t find in many Italian gelato shops.
We also take inspiration from our trips abroad and places we’d love to visit sooner or later, for this reason we have flavors inspired by beautiful countries such as Iceland, New Zealand, Japan, Argentina, and many others, even from Polynesia!
You can check the full flavor list here.
we are plastic-free
Since it’s food related, we’d like to end letting you know we pay a lot of attention also to our packaging, and by that we don’t mean because it’s cool but because we are completely plastic-free, and all our packaging (cups, spoons, bags, straws, etc.) is compostable.
want to know more?
We have a blog page with more information regarding the gelato world, you can find it here!