Why Gelato Village has given its staff a day off for Bank Holiday Monday
It’s pretty standard to see a queue of people eager for gelato in St Martin’s Square on a sunny day.
But if you were planning a trip to Gelato Village today to fill your hot weather treat craving you might be surprised to hear it is closed.
A sunny day is guaranteed to bring a crowd of gelato lovers but the business has decided to put its staff first and give them bank holiday Monday off.
The gelato business, which opened in 2014, will not re-open until 11am tomorrow to give its staff a well-earned rest.
Informing customers on Twitter, the business said this morning: “Bank Holiday Monday is our day of rest. We’re giving everyone the day off to enjoy the rest of Easter and the sunshine. So we’ll see you all tomorrow from 11am.”
Read more at the Leicester Mercury
This is how Leicester’s Gelato Village responded to a ‘tasteless’ review
When it comes to sweet treats, plenty of Leicester folk swear by Gelato Village.
The dessert parlour produces fresh, authentic Italian gelato which has scooped a number of awards for the St Martins Square business.
And the reviews online nearly always match up to this – with an average Google Review of 4.8 out of 300 gradings.
So when one reviewer took to the ratings site to describe their products as ‘tasteless’ they jumped to their pastry’s defence.
Read more in the Leicester Mercury
Gelato Village: The Taste of Italy in the centre of Leicester
A feature on Gelato Village in the Italian magazine, Corriere Della Sera
Secondo me, sarebbe una bellissima idea. – Quando Antonio de Vecchi e Daniele Taverna hanno chiesto a un amico come vedesse il loro progetto di aprire una gelateria di tradizione italiana nel centro di Leicester, lui ha risposto così. E da quella frase, detta quasi per scherzo, si può partire per raccontare la storia di Gelato Village.
Read the full article on Corriere Della Sera
Gelato Village present Richard III at Sigep, Rimini
The Gelato Village team have appeared at the 40th Sigep – the trade show for artisan gelato, pastry and coffee. The festival takes place each year in Rimini, a coastal city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.
As well as showcasing some of the world’s best products, the festival is a hive of activity for leading professionals across the globe to get together and share good practice. Proceeding our very own Antonio and Daniele on stage was leading gelatieri and past Gelato in the Square participant Paolo Brunelli with Italian Master Chef Alessandro Borghese.
King Richard III Gelato
Gelato Village’s own Antonio and Daniele were invited to Sigep to present their exclusive Richard III gelato. This recipe was developed to highlight Leicester’s rich history. Like all of Gelato Village’s gelati, it is made using fresh, natural ingredients without artificial preservatives, stabilisers or flavourings. The gelato blends a homemade rose blossom infusion with a fruits of the forest ripple in a nod to the last stand of the White Rose of the House of York at Bosworth during the War of the Roses.
As well as presenting on their creation, the team used the festival Gelato Laboratory to create a batch of the gelato for guests to taste. It is being showcased as one of the flavours of the day alongside an extra virgin olive oil gelato made by fellow Maestro Gelatiere Mirko Tognetti. Mirko is the gelatiere at Cremeria Opera in Lucca. He participated in the Gelato in the Square event at Gelato Village in 2017.
Compagnia Gelatieri and Project Gelato
Both Gelato Village and Cremeria Opera’s gelatieri are participating as representatives of the Compagnia Gelatieri. This professional organisation is arranged by invitation only and includes the best gelato makers in the world, who are dedicated to the production of authentic Italian gelato using only fresh, natural and high quality ingredients.
These gelato chefs, along with others, have their recipes featured in Progetto Gelato, the new book from Andrea Soban. This publication is also being showcased for the first time at Sigep 2019. The book is aimed at those in the industry wishing to improve their professional practice, or for those who are new to gelato wishing to start up in business. Along with advice on selecting the best ingredients and advanced techniques, there are a range of recipes featured from some of the world’s best gelato makers. Gelato Village are extremely proud to have been invited to contribute to this publication.
Leicester’s Gelato Village enjoys a golden run of award success at home & abroad
“It is overwhelming to receive this degree of international attention in just one week. Our small business has celebrated four years of trading in 2018 and we continually strive to make the very best gelato for our customers to enjoy. It isn’t always easy as footfall in Leicester city centre is unpredictable! However, it is fantastic to receive independent confirmation on regional, national and international levels that our gelato really is something special. We’d like to thank everyone who has supported Gelato Village in 2018 for helping us to remain committed to high quality gelato that is Good, Clean and Fair.”
Gelato Village bags seconds place as Best Gelato on the Web
Molto partecipata poi la cerimonia di premiazione dei vari concorsi. Consegnati anche i premi del 17. concorso “Gelaterie in web 2018”, riservato ai migliori siti internet e pagine Facebook della gelateria. Quest’anno a vincere è stata Roberta Borlina della gelateria Via Piave di Noventa di Piave (VE), che ha preceduto Laura Hadland di Gelato Village di Leicester (Regno Unito) e, ex aequo al terzo posto, Max Fornaciari di Max Gelateria di Florianópolis (Brasile) e Giada Lovat di Gelateria Lovat di Jesolo (VE). A seguire la proclamazione del “Tiramisù”, quale “Gusto d’Europa”, promosso da Artglace – Confederazione delle Associazioni dei Gelatieri Artigiani dell’Unione Europea. Il gusto è stato preparato da Tomas Infante della “Gelateria Antiche Tentazioni” di Selvazzano Dentro (Veneto), vincitore della Gelato Tiramisù Italian Cup.
Read the full article on the MIG Longarone website
Introducing Vine Farm Dairy
After four fantastic years of partnership, it is time for Gelato Village to wave a fond farewell to Alan and Jane at Belvoir Ridge Creamery. We wish them every happiness in their retirement and thank them for the amazing rare breed milk and cream that has been the cornerstone of our fresh gelato since we opened back in 2014.
Looking forward we’d like to introduce you all to James and Charlotte from Vine Farm Dairy. Their herd of happy Montbéliarde, Jersey and Holstein cows are now supplying our milk. The herd graze the green grass pastures of the farm in Great Dalby, 13 miles away from Gelato Village.
Their creamy whole milk is pasteurised but unhomogenised. This means that it has been gently heat treated to remove any harmful bacteria, but it has not been through the industrial processes of homogenisation, standardisation and separation so it retains all of its flavour and quality.
The milk is free range. The farm try to maximize the time the cows spend outside grazing in the Great Dalby pastures. In the spring and summer the cows have the freedom to roam around both night and day from field to field. Grazing is good for the cows and good for the milk. During the deep winter months the grass almost stops growing and becomes extremely wet,. Then the cows are housed inside and fed them with the grass that has been conserved as silage and straw in the summer months.
Vine Farm Dairy at Gelato Village
Vine Farm Dairy’s milk is now the foundation for all of our dairy-based gelato. Remember, our gelato is made according to our own recipes. We only use fresh, natural ingredients. Everything is made at our in-store Gelato Laboratory. Just look through the windows to see the Lab in action! If you want to taste the difference that the Vine Farm Dairy makes, then pop into Gelato Village and ask for a taste of our Fior di Latte gelato. This is the flower of the milk – which showcases the flavour of this incredible raw ingredient.
Take it a stage further and you can buy Vine Farm Dairy milk from us by the litre. Just grab your bottle from our drinks fridge. Please return the bottles to us for recycling.
Leicester’s Gelato Village win Gelato Festival Challenge
Gelato Village’s Bee Happy gelato has claimed victory at the first heat in the Gelato Festival World Masters competition. Held at the headquarters of Carpigiani UK in Hereford, this was the first step on the road to global recognition.
The gelato, made using Leicestershire cow’s milk and local honey along with lemon zest and sage, went head to head with five other competitors from around the UK including Bristol and Cirencester. A panel of experts judged the gelato for its flavour, structure, creativity and presentation. These criteria are designed to highlight the choice of ingredients and the technical skill demonstrated in the development of the recipe and the making of the fresh gelato on the day of the competition.
The competition is run by Carpigiani, the leading producer of machinery for the production of artisan gelato. Following their victory in the heat, Gelato Village will go on to the UK final in Summer 2020. Should they be successful there, they will compete at the world final in 2021, where the search for the greatest gelato chefs in the world will culminate. |
World’s Leading Gelato Makers take Leicester by Storm
Over 1000 guests were surprised and delighted by the Gelato in the Square event at Gelato Village, Leicester this weekend.
The two day event saw ten of the world’s leading gelato chefs converge on Leicester city centre to create an unforgettable palatte of flavours and gelato experiences. From New York, Milan and London these artisan masters came to Leicester. They created fresh gelato at the in-store Laboratory each morning and exclusively used natural, seasonal and high quality produce.
Customers were treated to Memories of a Tortello – inspired by the butter-fried sage used to coat tortelli pasta – and Year after Year which examined the impact that time and patience has on the development of ingredients like Scotch whisky and chocolate.
Over 20 events, many of them free, were held at the St Martin’s Square gelateria and in partner venues around the city, with most of the tastings and workshop being free to participate in. They all examined the festival’s theme; “Gelato, a unique flavour journey”. The wild and wacky programme offered unique gastronomic experiences to all who participated, from a 5 course wine pairing tasting menu at the nationally renowned Delilah Fine Foods to tracing the role and impact of different yeasts in a delicious collaborative tasting by microbusinesses Planet Leicester Bakers and Anstey Ale Brewery.
The event closed with an award ceremony celebrating the achievements of the Maestri Gelatieri. Food writers Jan Egan, Tim Burke and Laura Hadland had the enviable task of judging each of the gelati, sorbetti and granite in terms of their flavour, balance, texture, structure and creativity, while a public vote running throughout the festival determined the people’s champion. The overall winner was Stefano Guizzetti of Ciacco in Milan. His flavour ‘Fiery Blackness’ was deemed to provide the greatest flavour journey – with bitter cocoa melding into spiced rum notes, which in turn gave way to a subtle but distinct fire from Trinidad Scorpion chilli.
The public favoured the unusual and complex gelato on offer the most too, voting Gianfrancesco Cutelli of De ‘Coltelli as their winner. His Green Variations sorbetto was a dairy-free creation which blended high quality Sicilian pistachio with semi-candied capers and oregano for a fusion of tastes including sweet, salty and aromatic.
“We are pleased that Leicester was as excited about this event as we were!” said Gelato Village co-owner Daniele Taverna. “We wanted to help people understand what makes authentic gelato so special and it was our pleasure to be able to bring our colleagues from around the globe to do that.”
Leicester becomes home to the world’s best gelato
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 27th and 28th 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.