Interview: Nick Palumbo of Gelato Messina
"I wanted to create a brand that used traditional craftsmanship but was flexible in the sense that there is no limit to how creative you want to be."
Inimitable frozen dessert guru Nick Palumbo is responsible for making gelato the hottest thing in Sydney served below 0°C. His revered Gelato Messina sets the benchmark for gelato in Australia, taking a traditional Sicilian craft (everything is made from scratch using raw, natural ingredients) and carefully folding in an avant-garde approach towards flavours (there are six to seven specials released each week, with even the most deceptively unassuming beige ones accumulating Facebook likes in the hundreds).
Now he's been tasked with the duty of finding one Australian craftsman blending tradition with inspiration. Ketel One has snagged Nick to sit on the judging panel of their Modern Craft Project, which you might remember us talking about here and which you should probably enter if you have a traditional craft, an entrepreneurial spirit and a partiality towards $100,000 cash prizes. Before the competition kicks off we stole a few minutes out of Nick's busy schedule to get the scoop on his idiosyncratic approach to artisan gelati.
Concrete Playground (CP): Why gelato?
Nick Palumbo (NP): In Messina, Sicily (where we are from) there is a huge culture of gelato and I wanted to create a brand that used traditional craftsmanship but was flexible in the sense that there is no limit to how creative you want to be.
CP: What flavours did you launch Gelato Messina with back in 2002?
NP: We only had 20 basic flavours back then but there was always a focus on quality. The innovation started to come in about two years later once we gained the trust of our customers. Coconut lychee, which sounds boring now, was our first "experimental flavour" back then.
CP: Why did you decide to do the Gelato Messina Lab?
NP: Because in the gelateria, we thought we had taken the quality side of things to quite a high level and all we had now was innovation of flavours. We wanted to push the boundaries a bit and marry in the world of high end patisserie with gelato, and saw it as a huge challenge and something that, to our knowledge, no one had done before.
CP: The cakes are incredibly intricate — which one is the most satisfying to assemble?
NP: The Black Forest, there are lots of components and the end result looks amazing.
CP: They also incorporate many ingredients that aren't normally found in frozen desserts. Which ingredient poses the most problems?
NP: All the jellies, they are hard to make soft at -18°C!
CP: How do you come up with new flavours?
NP: Basically we look for inspiration everywhere, especially from the world of patisserie, but it's also about continually finding flavours that work together.
CP: What flavour has been the biggest surprise for you in terms of popularity?
NP: Salted Caramel and White Choc Chip. It's now our best seller yet but when it first came out I actually heard a few people saying they didn't like it. Now those same people love it.
CP: Obviously coming up with flavours must involve a lot of trial and error. What have been some of the errors?
NP: Tomato sorbet.
CP: I read a story about the frontman of Amy Meredith turning to his Facebook fans to demand the return of this favourite flavour (Elvis the Fat Years, which was then reborn as Christian Skinny Jeans). Is there anyone else you would like to reincarnate as gelato?
NP: My three-month-old boy! The Milky Bar Kid.
CP: Why did you want to become involved with the Ketel One Modern Craft Project?
NP: Because Ketel One is an amazing brand full of history, which is my dream for Messina, and because there is not much in the way of support in this country for young people with a passion to do good things so anything that will help support artisans is something I'd like to be a part of.
CP: What is next for Gelato Messina?
NP: We open in Bondi in the middle of next year and we open in China (Hangzhou) in April next year.
CP: And finally, cup or cone?
NP: Silly question, CONE!
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