Giancarlo Timballo and the salt ice cream

"We can say that my colleagues and I have launched the trend of salt ice cream, and we helped it come back in the kitchen. The modern ice cream born in kitchens of the royal courts of the Renaissance, becoming a mass only in the twentieth century with the industrial type. In short, the ice cream associated with savory dishes had disappeared after the Renaissance. But now it seems that a lot has changed in the field."  After the collaboration with Chefs Luca Landi, Emanuele Scarello and his sous Japanese chef Tatsuya Iwasaki, Giancarlo Timbale has contaminate the haute cuisine with homemade ice cream. With a small number of colleagues, he studied and discovered a new direction to create salt ice cream and to do this he gone back to investigate new topics on the characteristics of sugar, the structure and texture of the ice cream. So this is how innovative ice creams is born, with eclectic and unusual tastes, but very functional to the whimsical demands of the gourmet chef: foie gras ice cream, anchovies, clams, oysters, truffles, cuttlefish ink, but also with vegetables as celery, basil, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, then with cheese from Friuli as Montasio, the Formadi frant, smoked ricotta and even mountain huts of the San Daniele with sweet wines as Picolit and Ramandolo. But his story and his true love for homemade ice cream are never lost. "It starts in spring with flowers of dandelion from Pagnacco, with rose petals and old Poppy, with elderflower and then again in autumn with elderberries, the sea buckthorn juice and grapes ice cream. In summer you work less with the flowers, but the ice cubes of fresh fruit are amazing: the sticks with the fruit pulp of strawberry and melon in the summer, and citrus, figs, persimmons and date of winter. The classic flavors, like the Bronte pistachio or hazelnut Tonda Langhe, are always, but also ice cream made with cocoa from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Madagascar, or with the use of spices like cinnamon or star-anise. The fresh milk comes from the Friuli Pezzata Rossa, the eggs from hens kept on the ground, the fruits are organic, flowers are herbs, wines and their products must have local food tradition. "In a few words, what nature provides and is sweet, Giancarlo serves is in the ice cream shop as traditional ice cream. The rest is pure experimentation, a "salty" game of tastes for the chefs! Giancarlo Timballo is intellectual fuel for gourmet and contemporary Italian cooking. www.gelateriafiordilatte.it