Internal PR Archives - Gelato Village

Mango season has arrived!

The most eagerly awaited part of the year has arrived at Gelato Village. Mango season is here!

Each year, our most popular recipes are Mango Lassi gelato and Mango sorbetto. Customers ask for them throughout the year. But fresh, high quality mangoes are only available for a short period in the summer. That precious few weeks has arrived for 2019.

As usual, we are bringing a variety of Kesar mango from India and Honey mango from Pakistan in store to craft into fresh gelato. Keep an eye on the board as which mango we are currently using will be detailed on the label. This can change from week to week, even day to day, depending on the supply of mangoes.

Mango Lassi gelato won third place in the international gelato competition at the Gelato Artigianale Festival in Agugliano, Italy in 2016. This is a blend of mango, yoghurt and cardamom. It was inspired by the flavours and likes of our diverse communities here in Leicester. If you prefer a non-dairy based treat, then try the refreshing mango sorbetto. This is water based and so is suitable for those who follow a dairy-free or vegan diet.

But the mango season soon passes, so don’t wait for too long to come and try these popular recipes. Remember, you can always have a free taste of a new flavour when you visit Gelato Village. Come and discover how delicious these beautiful fresh fruits are when made into authentic Italian gelato.

Remember, we are Slow Food Supporters, so we always source our ingredients ethically and sustainably.

Watch swarm of hundreds of bees!

Bees turned us into an Enviro crime scene this week! The insects decided to swarm on the tree outside Gelato Village. They must have heard how good our award winning Bee Happy gelato is. The swarm was quickly and kindly relocated by the Council, but it still made the paper in the interim! It did give us a chance to experiment with a new seating arrangement by the side door though.

They were in more danger located in the city centre. We’re glad it was resolved quickly. It’s good that we have more bees around. But not out the front of the shop! All of nature’s friends are friends of ours. This was a little too close for comfort however. Whatever will happen next. There is definitely never a dull moment here at Gelato Village.

“A swarm of bees caused a bit of a buzz in Leicester’s St Martin’s Square this afternoon.

Hundreds of the insects emerged from a nest in a tree alongside the centre’s entrance at the junction of Cank Street and Hotel Street.”

Have you ever had a close encounter with bees? What is the strangest place you have seen a swarm? It is definitely not something we’ve ever heard of here in the city centre. Perhaps they were lured in by the beautiful planting at nearby Cathedral Gardens?

Leicester’s Gelato Village named the best dessert parlour in the Midlands

Independent Leicester city centre business Gelato Village has scooped the title of best dessert parlour in the entire Midlands.
The St Martin’s Square eatery received the accolade at the 2019 Midlands Food Drink and Hospitality Awards, which were held in Birmingham last night.

Hailing from Turin in Italy, the pair create authentic Italian gelato, with a unique sense of place.
Leicestershire produce used at Gelato Village includes milk from Vine Farm Dairy and honey from The Bee Farmer.
Gelato varieties which give a nod to Leicester’s heritage include Alice Hawkins (lavender and white chocolate) and Richard III (fruits of the forest with homemade rose blossom essence).

Antonio and Daniele are currently in Turin speaking at the Turin Epicurean conference about their commitment to fantastic food, so they sent a deputy to receive the award on their behalf.

They said: “We are over the moon to have picked up such a high profile award. It is great that the judges were impressed by our use of the best quality seasonal and, where possible, local ingredients to make the best Italian gelato.

“We will continue to always make the very best product for the people of Leicester to enjoy and hope award will encourage even more people to visit Gelato Village and to find out all of the great things our fantastic city has to offer.”

Read more on the Leicester Mercury website here.

Cold Brew Coffee now available!

New for summer 2019 we now have cold brew coffee available in store. Just made with water and ground single origin coffee. This is then steeped for more than 20 hours to get the flavour and served from our new counter top tap. As with all of our coffee, we use Caffe Vergnano – a high quality and ethical coffee supplier from Italy.

Enjoy your cold brew coffee as it comes, or add sugar and milk to your taste. Of course our cups are all biodegradable and compostable if you choose to enjoy it to take away. Come and try the latest coffee craze for yourself here at Gelato Village.

Gelato Village bring anchovy gelato to the Italians!

Gelato Village made their bi-annual pilgrimage to one of the biggest celebrations of cheese and dairy in the world this September. Simply entitled Cheese, the festival is run by Slow Food International in Bra, Italy. Bra was the town where the Slow Food movement was born, founded by Carlo Petrini. The goals of the movement are to prevent the disappearance of local food culture and ingredients, fight the rise of fast food and help everyone have access to food that is Good, Clean and Fair.

butter and anchovy gelato with turmeric sourdough

Gelato Village with Simone de Feo at Cheese 2019

The theme of Cheese in 2019 was ‘natural is possible’ so there was a focus on natural production methods and raw milk cheese. All of these ideas are linked to ethical and sustainable produce, animal welfare and environmental responsibility.

Anchovy Gelato

Gelato Village were invited to present at the Inalpi Freehouse. Inalpi is a Piemontese butter manufacturer who use 100% local milk of the region. We developed two very special gelato to present to the crowds at the festival. The first was an anchovy and butter gelato, which we served on a turmeric and fennel sourdough made by Bisbrooke Artisans in Rutland. This gave the impression of eating the simple Italian snack, anchovy fillet on buttered bread. A unique mix of salty, sweet, rich and creamy, the audience really enjoyed the journey in flavour that we took them on.

Shropshire Prune Damson and Butter gelato

Shropshire Prune Damson Gelato

Second, we introduced our Shropshire Prune Damson and butter gelato which had first been showcased at the Ludlow Food Festival, earlier in September. The Shropshire Prune Damson is an ingredient that is recognised by a Slow Food Arc of Taste – a status that is designed to help protect and promote this increasingly scarce local Midlands ingredient. The sharp sweetness of the fruit set against the extra creamy buttery notes made an excellent pairing and were served with a slice of Bisbrooke Artisan’s key product, the Village sourdough loaf. This sourdough bread added an extra note of sourness and a real chew in the crust which helped the serving to balance beautifully.

It was a great experience, developing these new recipes and sharing a taste of some of our local ingredients with our Italian friends and colleagues. Creating a butter themed gelato really tested our creative skills to the limits, but we’re really happy with what we produced!

Gelato Village hits Nottingham

The UK’s leading makers of artisan Italian gelato, Gelato Village, will be bringing a pop up cabinet to No 8 Delicatessen in West Bridgford this weekend.

Gelato Village are passionate about producing all natural gelato using the very best seasonal ingredients. For a number of years they have done this with the support of Nottingham’s The Fruit Basket, who supply them with the very best in flavourful, in season British produce as well as delicious fruit from further afield. When combined with other local Midlands ingredients, like fresh unhomogenized milk from Vine Farm Dairy in Great Dalby, Leicestershire, Gelato Village’s gelato has proved irresistible – picking up national and even international awards for its quality year upon year.

Now they are bringing their unique flavours to the Fruit Basket’s sister company, the No 8 Deli. Co-owner of Gelato Village Daniele Taverna said “as Slow Food Supporters, we couldn’t think of anywhere better for us to visit in Nottingham. No 8 have been dedicated to food of the highest quality for over 16 years so we know their customers will value the care we take over our gelato and our showcase of the very best produce The Fruit Basket has to offer.”

Gelato Village’s mobile ‘Gelato on Wheels’ cabinet will be at No 8 Deli from Thursday 25th June to Sunday 28th June. Customers will be able to enjoy up to three delicious flavours in a cup of gelato, regardless of which size they choose. The menu will include British strawberry sorbetto and British raspberry sorbetto – both made with fresh seasonal ingredients and vegan friendly. Customers will also be able to enjoy the traditional Fior di Latte gelato, or ‘Flower of the Milk’ which showcases the flavour of the Vine Farm Dairy milk that is the basis of all Gelato Village’s dairy offerings.

A Statement from Gelato Village

Last night around 7.30pm one of our co-owners, Daniele Taverna, was physically assaulted in an unprovoked attack out the front of our gelateria. He was fortunate to come away from the violent incident only shaken and bruised. This was in no small part due to the timely intervention of our near neighbours from 33 Cank Street and Bodega and we would like to thank those individuals for stepping in to help with no thought for their own personal safety.

Years of underfunding have left Leicester without decent provision for destitute people in our city that can also struggle with drug and alcohol problems. They are not being helped and this is making the city feel increasingly unsafe in the evenings. This has become even more noticeable since lockdown.

Similarly, reductions in funding are limiting the response times of our police. After taking detailed information over the phone, the police first went to the wrong address and when they finally arrived, Daniele’s assailant had managed to flee the scene.

We are disappointed that we are not able to feel safe in our own shop. Gelato only exists to make people happy, and Gelato Village only exists to allow us to bring a little bit of joy into our customers’ lives. But we will not put ourselves and our staff at risk to do that.

Next Steps

Having discussed the incident with our team this morning, we realise that none of us feel safe opening in the evening anymore. There needs to be changes in the city to make the night time economy more welcoming for workers and for customers. There needs to be better infrastructure in place for us to feel safe running our business. Until there is change we will not be able to open Gelato Village past 7pm in the evening.

We know this will be disappointing for customers who enjoy visiting us for gelato late at night, after a comedy show or as a follow up to a dinner date. We know a lot of people like to come to Gelato Village because it opens late but does not serve alcohol. We hope that all of these customers will understand and respect our decision. We will continue to open in the daytime, to offer Click & Collect and delivery services, and we hope that you will all continue to support Gelato Village. We will continue to regularly post updates about our opening hours on here and on our Facebook page.

Thank you,

Antonio & Daniele

Gelato in the Square event heralded as an incredible success!

The UK’s first celebration of artisan Italian gelato saw ten of the world’s finest Maestri Gelatieri descend on Gelato Village in Leicester last weekend. As well as bringing incredible new tastes to the people of the city – including Chocolate & Tuscan Cigar – the event provided an opportunity for visitors to learn more about the craft behind traditional gelato making and the careful sourcing of ingredients that goes into its creation.

Supported by a range of small local producers, the team at Gelato Village and their VIP guests crafted sixteen unique gelato and sorbetto creations which showcased the best produce of the season, and their home region. At the centre of this was the rare breed milk and cream from Belvoir Ridge Creamery, Leicestershire, whose single herd of Red Poll cattle supply all of the dairy used by Gelato Village. The visiting gelatieri were delighted to take this excellent local product as the basis for all of their creations, particularly having tried a blind taste test of the milk against the supermarket equivalent at the event’s launch on Friday. All of the gelatieri at the event are committed to Slow Food principles of producing food which is Good, Clean and Fair.

The launch saw another unique event, a gelato inspired colour transformation by local salon group, Barrie Stephen. They sponsored the Fig, Almond & Bay gelato, and were so inspired by the rich colours of the white fig of Cilento, a delicacy of the Campanian region, that they created a bespoke look for their model who was presented to the gelatieri, much to their amazement and delight. Also at the event, local vintner Liz Robson of Rothley Wine Estate provided some refreshing English sparkling wine to toast the event’s success.

Throughout the weekend, hungry guests visited the gelateria to enjoy their customary free tastes of gelato, before choosing which of the special flavours they wanted to enjoy.

Antonio De Vecchi, Maestro Gelatiere at Gelato Village was delighted with their response:

“Between us, we made half a tonne of gelato over three days for Leicester to enjoy. We’ve loved the enthusiasm with which our customers have embraced the skill and expertise of our visiting gelatieri colleagues.
I am also proud to repot that our own creation, The Gelato in the Square, using Marron Glacé from our home region of Piemonte has also been a runaway success!”

As well as enjoying the delicious treats, visitors were treated to an extensive programme of free events throughout the weekend, based around the theme of ‘getting to know gelato’. As well as each of the award winning gelatieri presenting their flavours and their inspiration (along with a delicious free tasting), this programme included a range of local food and drink specialists, including The Bee Farmer giving daily talks about his work and Aperitivo Hour demonstrations from Charlotte Wood of renowned local bar Manhattan34.

Award winning chef, Andrea Scarpati of Sapori Restaurant and Bar made a showstopping pairing of Quince & Franciacorta sorbetto with a stunning dish of Scottish salmon tataki with panko bread,soy sauce and balsamic vinegar emulsion served with quince variation. Gelato sponsors Everards also delighted with a pairing of their Tiger bitter with ‘Bacio’ gelato and Planet Leicester Bakers challenged the Masters to a Flavour Off – where interpretations of Spiced Pear in bread and sorbetto were found to complement each other perfectly, rather than being bitter rivals as intended!

Gelato Village would like to extend its thanks to all of the visiting gelatieri, many of whom closed their own award winning independent gelaterias in Italy to participate in the event. Also thanks go to the Compagnia Gelatieri, a professional association of gelato makers, who supported the organisation of the event, as well as Agrimontana and Antonelli Brothers for their sponsorship.

“I found Gelato in the Square to be a great experience.
Our hosts did a fantastic job, and personally I hope they repeat the event in the future!
I also found all of the visitors were very interested in the making of the gelato.
As there is so much work to be done so that people can understand more about good quality ingredients, and therefore good gelato, I’d love to see more events like this.”

Vera Castrovilli, Nevedarance – Caluso, Piemonte

Notes for Editors

An extensive gallery of images by Matt Glover Photography is available to support coverage of this event.

For more information, interview requests or supplementary information, please contact Laura Hadland.

Gelato Village is an independent gelateria in the heart of Leicester which is dedicated to make high quality fresh products without the use of any artificial flavourings, stabilisers or preservatives. It was opened in 2014 by Antonio De Vecchi and Daniele Taverna and has received numerous local, national and international accolades for the quality of its gelato.

Suffragette hero Alice Hawkins celebrated by Gelato Village

In the centenary year of the Representation of the People Act, Leicester’s Gelato Village have joined in with the celebration of Alice Hawkins’ dedication to women’s rights and the improvement of working conditions.

“Alice was a local working class hero who campaigned tirelessly in Leicester to improve working conditions in the Boot & Shoe Industry and to gain women’s suffrage” said Daniele Taverna, co-owner of the Leicester gelateria. “The least we can do is name a gelato for her”. Gelato Village have selected a white chocolate and lavender gelato to simply name ‘Alice Hawkins’.

“The colours of the gelato – purple, green and white – are the same as the colours used by the Women’s Social and Political Union” said Daniele. “These would have been the colours of the sash shown on the newly unveiled status of Ms Hawkins in Market Square”.

This is not the first time that Gelato Village have immortalised significant local figures in gelato. A Richard III gelato, made with rose blossom and fruits of the forest ripple has been available since the gelateria opened in August 2014. The Gelato dei Campioni, which celebrated the historic Premier League victory of Leicester City Football Club in 2016, was ‘retired’ in February 2017 when Claudio Ranieri was sacked by the club.

Leicester becomes home to the world’s best gelato

Award-winning Gelato Village in Leicester is bringing a star-studded line up of gelato makers to the Midlands city at the end of October.

Their second annual Gelato in the Square event will celebrate the unique stories that artisan gelato tells. These are master craftspeople whose creations reflect seasonality, local produce, folk memory and food heritage.

Six leading gelaterias from around the world will be flying their teams to St Martin’s Square in Leicester. This includes L’Albero Dei Gelati of Brooklyn, New York. They will be presenting ‘Year after Year’, a gelato which celebrates the unique impact of time and patience in the production of complex flavour profiles.

Giovanna Musumeci of Pasticceria Musumeci in Sicily will be putting Leicester’s palates to the test by offering a gastronomic tomato granita. This will be served on toasted bread with burrata and basil in the style of a bruschetta.

All of the gelato makers are committed to using only the best ingredients, and do not use any artificial stabilisers, preservatives or flavourings. Half of the 17 flavours will be dairy-based. The gelatieri will have to adapt their recipes so that they work in balance with the rare breed Leicestershire cow’s milk that Gelato Village will provide from the local Belvoir Ridge Creamery’s single herd of Red Poll cattle. The other half of the recipes on offer will be water-based, meaning that they are suitable for vegans and others who follow a dairy free diet.

Running over 27^th and 28^th October, the event is being put on in collaboration with the newly established BID Leicester. They make funding available to BID area businesses to support events that make Leicester a more attractive place to visit.

Simon Jenner, BID Leicester director:

“Gelato in the Square is a great event, giving us a taste of some of the world’s best gelato right here in Leicester. We are pleased to be supporting Gelato Village with this event which can help to benefit the whole BID area by raising Leicester’s profile as well as bringing more people into the city centre.”

As the gelato is served using traditional spatulas, rather than scoops, visitors to Gelato Village will be able to enjoy a cup or cone of up to three festival flavours, regardless of what size they choose. Throughout the two day event there will be a series of free workshops and tastings that look at the journey of the ingredients in more detail. Foodies can also get stuck in at ticketed gastronomic events. There is also a 6 course Taster Menu pairing gelato with Italian wine at neighbouring Delilah Fine Foods, the UK’s leading deli. Tickets for this unique menu cost £32 and are available from Delilah on 0116 296 3554.

“We want to shout out about what makes authentic gelato different. Creating a complex gelato in perfect balance takes knowledge and skill.” said Daniele Taverna, co-owner of Gelato Village. “Using the best quality ingredients always shines through. We, and our colleagues, are dedicating to respecting Slow Food principles and seasonality and we can’t wait for everyone to try the results of our hard work!”

Admission to Gelato in the Square is free, just pay for the gelato you consume.

For more information, visit our website.

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