Interview with Sergio Dondoli, gelato maker in San Gimignano
THE BEST CHOCOLATE GELATO IN THE WORLD

The Tuscan ice cream maker Sergio Dondoli produces the best chocolate ice cream in the world

On October 14th, in Rome, Sergio Dondoli will be crowned “King of chocolate ice cream”. This competition, entitled “Colosseum 93”, is one of the most important and significant for ice cream makers all over the world. It is only exceeded in importance by the cup which is assigned every year in Rimini. Here, Sergio, who sold his treats in Kiel and Lubecca for 17 years, walked away with everything in 1991: winning three first prizes. This success however was characterised by one black spot: he had sent in the recipe under the name of some friends and colleagues because he hadn’t yet opened his ice cream parlour in Tuscany’s San Gimignano. Now, Sergio’s victory in Rome will officially bear his name.

Question: Sergio, how do you make the best chocolate ice cream in the world?
Dondoli: it takes years and years of hard work. It’s harder to make ice cream than people might think. It isn’t just a case of mixing together litres of ingredients. In the case of some ingredients it is necessary to take care to avoid using too much or too little. Today for instance, the ice cream didn’t turn out very well, that little “something” is missing. Furthermore, chocolate ice cream can’t be tasted while it’s cooking. The ice cream develops its flavour three hours after it is completed, because the cocoa – or walnut oil – develops its flavour very gradually. And then it’s too late to taste it.

Question: Is the recipe ready for “Colosseum”, the Rome competition?
Dondoli: No. I will only decide the exact recipe on the day of the competition. But I am going to change something in the basic recipe. This is something I do frequently, although my wife always complains when I change an ice cream that sells well. Quite simply I just feel the need to do it. The differences in taste are very slight from one day to the next, but a real connoisseur and ice cream lover can tell. This is a local, he comes every day. And he always asks for just chocolate and walnut. He can tell immediately if I've changed or added something. He says to my wife “Tell hi I didn’t like the ice cream today!”. So I know I’ve done a bad job.

Question: What makes you want to change the winning recipe at Rimini?
Dondoli: I found an old Sicilian recipe book from the beginning of the century which talks about oriental herbs which used to be imported into Sicily. These herbs were cooked and an extract was used o make ice cream. This is why, for the last few weeks, using chemist’s scales and 2-gram doses, I’ve been trying out herbs to use in my recipes.

Question: What is your favourite ice cream?
Dondoli: I have very different preferences: in the summer I prefer fruit flavours – peach or melon. In the winter, obviously, chocolate. In actual fact I think that my fruit ice cream is excellent, even better than the chocolate! But I can’t prove it because there are practically no competitions for fruit ice cream.

Question: Sergio, where is the best ice cream: in Germany or in Italy?
Dondoli: It’s a question of taste. German ice cream is based on the Dolomite school, where more milk is used. I The Sicilian schools on the other hand concentrate on fruit and water as ingredients. The main differencebetween the two countries however is made by ice cream lovers. Germans and Sicilians eat a lot of ice cream at all times of day. Often people go to the ice cream parlour at lunchtime. Northern Italians – as far south as Tuscany – eat virtually no ice cream. It’s too early in the morning. Mid-morning children can’t have ice cream otherwise they won’t eat lunch. So between 2 and 4.00 p.m. the ice cream parlours are packed. Then the dinner-linked risk sets in. Thank God the German tourists think differently, otherwise I could never repay the loan I too out to open my ice cream parlour.

Interview: Franz Neumeier