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WHO NEEDS GELATO??
By, Steve Thompson
All this talk about Gelato. Who
needs it? Well, maybe you do. Gelato is all the rage right now but let’s not
gets hooked into another frozen dessert fad. Remember low carb ice cream? I am
definitely not saying Gelato is a fad, but it’s certainly worth a careful look.
Through-out the year I make ice cream to give
out to my friends. It started out as “Steve we love your ice cream. Steve you’re
the greatest.” Now, after a few years it’s “Steve, can you make us something a
little less fattening? And while your at it Steve, could you add a little more
flavor?” Hmm, let’s see here --- less fattening, more flavor. Less fattening,
more flavor. Why that’s Gelato!! Wow! we’ll make Gelato.You gotta admit those
Italian flavors; Tiramisu, Amaretto and Nocciola are really good. And
isn’t 10% milk fat lower than 16%?? This is a near perfect food!
But wait; is there a downside to serving Gelato
in your ice cream parlor? First let’s look at the typical American diet. Sad to
say, we think nothing of having a bag of potato chips and a diet Coke at eleven
in the morning and another bag of chips and a diet Coke at four in the
afternoon. We eat ice cream once a week lest our cardiologist come down on us
too harshly. The Europeans on the other hand, would never eat potato chips and
Coke in the middle of the day. However, they think nothing of having Gelato
before lunch and another Gelato in the late afternoon. That’s why there’s a
Gelateria on ever corner through out Europe. Their consumption of ice cream is
way above ours! With that high a degree of product turnover, they can afford to
make small pans of Gelato three, four even five times a day. Their Gelato
doesn’t go bad because it doesn’t have time to go bad. And if they run out of
Lampone Gelato (raspberry to you and me) no big deal – the store down the street
has more available. Imagine if I haven’t been to Cape Cod for two summers and
when I finally go to Four Seas Ice Cream, Dick Warren says “Sorry, Steve, we’re
out of cookies and cream! I’d flip! I waited two years for his cookies and cream
ice cream and now they’re out? American style ice cream parlors cannot run out
of product the way the European Gelaterias do. That’s why we have hardening
cabinets. The hardening cabinet saves you production labor and guarantees
you a definable stock of inventory. So, should we make ice cream like the
Europeans and produce every flavor several times a day? What if it’s a slow day?
What if it rains? We could be left with a whole lot of un-sold ice cream.
Statistics show that as much as 1/3 of an American Gelateria’s inventory can go
unsold. Imagine if I had to throw out 33% of all the stainless steel I buy every
week? I’d be out of business in no time! The European method of selling ice
cream just doesn’t always work in the United States.
BUT WAIT! All is not lost. Remember my
freeloading friends who wanted low fat and intense flavor? They still
want Gelato. And I deliver it to them – rock hard from the flash freezer. They
temper it up to serving temperature – just like ice cream. And they serve it in
a dish or on a cone – just like ice cream. And they really enjoy it – just like
ice cream.
But it’s Gelato!! SO, why can’t we make Gelato,
harden the Gelato and serve the Gelato out of our American style dipping
cabinets?? Just like we do with our good ole American style Ice Cream?? How
bout that? True European artisan Gelato without all the added expense of extra
dipping cabinets and “limited life” inventory.
Who needs Gelato? Well, maybe we do. American
style!
Fifty years before the first Italian Gelato
machine was manufactured, Emery Thompson Batch Freezers were being sold in
Europe for the production of Gelato, American style ice cream, Italian Ices,
Sorbet, Sorbetto, frozen yogurt and sherbet. The reason the Italian machines
look similar to our machinery is they are all based on Emery Thompson’s patents
filed 103 years ago! What would you like to have to produce your Gelato? A
machine that is similar to an Emery Thompson or a real EMERY THOMPSON??
Emery Thompson’s are available in the following
finished capacity sizes:
6 quart 12 quart 24 quart and 44 quart. All machines produce Gelato in under
ten minutes.
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