The “Gelateria” in San Gimignano is one of the best gourmet places in the world
Sergio Dondoli’s professional history started with two restaurants in Northern Germany. And then the ice cream comes in. “I started with great enthusiasm and a collection of family recipes”. A good ice cream is not made with passion alone. An excellent raw material isn’t enough as well: without technique there is no alchemy. Among many workshops, he highlights the workforce path at the Cast Alimenti of Brescia: here he was led by Maestro Luca Caviezel and examined by the great Iginio Massari.
“You never stop learning in the ice cream shop. It is a continuous challenge: all it takes is a different consistency of strawberries from one day to another”. His ingredients have a great focus on the Tuscan territory: among the tastes, the Saffron Cream, made with pistils of San Gimignano Saffron, the Pine nut of Pisa, or the Zabaglione of Vinsanto, aged 10 years and coming from the same place. “On the occasion of the San Gimignano Previews Vernaccia, we created the Italian Garden: basil cheesecake with tomato sauce and strawberry; while the year before the taste of hazelnut and truffle “. Haute cuisine fascinates Sergio, a business he thinks not very suitable for gourmet ice cream, despite supporting its marriage with restaurants. Early as 2009, during the Italian Congress of Haute Cuisine, he and chef Luca Landi had an unusual menu: “Not many chefs have such a knowledge of homemade ice cream”.
The master ice cream maker also leads “ice cream-class” and, as the Tuscan Ruggeri in medieval Europe did, he exports his artisanship in the world. With counselling from Moscow to Buenos Aires, he reveals a great novelty in preview: soon Brazil will have its Gelateria Dondoli too.
