Back to School: Learning how to make gelato in Bologna, Italy
Bologna is not one of the big tourist destinations, but it is an important region for food and industry. Combining the two led me to the Carpigiani Gelato University cooking class! Carpigiani is a manufacturer of gelato-making equipment, and since taking the class I have indeed noticed their brand on the equipment of many of my favorite gelato shops!
As mentioned earlier, because Bologna is not a big tourist destination, I was the only person in the class. Private lesson!
The first part of the gelato-making class was learning about the history of gelato. Here was my guide showing the automatic cone-maker invented by an Italian immigrant in the United States.
Next we went to the gelato lab and learned about the theory of making gelato, for example the differences between Italian gelato and ice cream and cultural differences in taste (Asians like the least sweet taste, Americans like the most sweet, and Europeans are in the middle). Then we calculated the proportions of the different ingredients to match our desired taste. Here we are looking through a tool to tell you how sweet something is. We used this to measure the sugar level in our strawberries, so we could adjust the sugar we needed to add on top precisely. It's very scientific!
Then I put theory to practice, and measured out the ingredients and put them in the gelato maker.
The gelato maker runs by itself, so the real differentiators between the gelato shops are the quality of the ingredients and the proportions. I didn't realize that as the gelato maker spits out the gelato, the nozzle gives you the very beautiful striations like in the chocolate gelato at top. I thought those were made by hand later, so I didn't take care when I was taking my strawberry gelato out. Hence the mess at the bottom!
But no matter, once it's in a cup and into your mouth, it's all the same. All very delicious!
