Nonna’s Gelato in Plantagenet
A trip that had them exploring the food and culture of Tuscany, Venice, Cinqua Terre, Siena and Lake Como saw Nathalie Bercier-Gauthier and Joe Gauthier return home from Italy full to the rim of a “medio” cup of sweet ideas.
The pair own and operate Café sur la Rive, in Plantagenet, and they were eager to introduce another food passion to the area: Nonna’s Gelato.
There is something near-mythical about the ritual: a stroll through a downtown park – if not an Italian piazza – eating gelato on a still-warm summer evening.
The word itself refers to both frozen, in its simplest Italian meaning, and a sweet, cold dessert – but the differences between gelato and ice cream are significant, if not immediately visually noticeable.
Traditionally using milk rather than cream, gelato has no eggs and is churned more slowly than ice cream, a process which introduces significantly less air into the resulting deliciousness, a key factor in the texture and concentration of gelato flavour that develops.
It’s a process – and an iconic food – that Bercier-Gauthier and Gauthier have come to understand quite well over the past four or so years …
For more about Nonna’s Gelato, visit Andre Paquette Editions.
