Gelato is not just ice cream
It has different roots, a different philosophy and a different taste.
01 · OriginsHow it all began
Gelato is believed to have appeared in 1565 in Florence.
It was not invented by a chef or a pastry cook. Bernardo Buontalenti was an architect. For a banquet in honour of the King of Spain he created a frozen dessert based on milk, egg yolks, honey, wine and citrus. What came out became the starting point of everything we call gelato today.
02 · The differenceHow is gelato different from ice cream?
In essence, in everything. Less fat, less sugar, a minimum of air. That is why the taste is so honest and dense: it has not been puffed up or hidden behind sweetness.
Gelato is served warmer so that the taste receptors work at full strength. And it keeps its pure taste for only a few days, because inside there is only what is natural.
03 · Through people
How gelato reached the world
Gelato has always spread through people: through masters who left Italy and took with them the most important thing, the skill and passion for an honest product, and through people who valued taste and wanted to pass this culture on to others. This is how gelato reached Australia and New Zealand.
What we saw there inspired everything that happened next.
04 · Our familyMore than a dessert
We have a big family, five children. And one simple thing unites us all: we adore Italian ice cream, gelato. Not “sometimes”; it is part of our life. At some point we even bought one of the most expensive home ice cream machines, simply because the ice cream we love cannot be bought anywhere. Not just sweet. The real thing.
In 2025 we set off on a long journey around Australia and New Zealand with an inner task: to understand what we truly want to do next. To find not just an idea, but the work of a lifetime.
When we travel, in any country we have a ritual: we never walk past a gelateria. We look for them on purpose, read the reviews, watch the queues. We taste everything together, swap flavours, discuss. It has always been more than just a dessert for us.
05 · The same questionFrom Australia to home
In Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queenstown we saw the same thing again and again: small gelaterias that sell nothing but Italian gelato, and people standing in line for 10–15 minutes. In winter. In summer. No difference. Because it is truly delicious.
When we walked out of one such gelateria in Queenstown, New Zealand, we had one question in our heads: where in our city is there gelato this good? Not “fine”. Not “quite good”. The kind you want to make a special trip for. We could not answer. We asked friends, and nobody could either.
We started thinking…
06 · Coincidences that became signsHow Manifattura was born
Then came many not-so-random coincidences.
A book by a well-known British gelato maker who has her own gelateria in London. Not an Italian. A Briton. Someone who fell in love with gelato and made it her work. The book with which our acquaintance with recipes began.
An acquaintance we had not seen for 15 years, whom we met in Perth, Australia. She told us about the gelato university in Bologna.
And later, in Thailand, we walked into the bathroom of our apartment and saw the name of the plumbing brand: Gelato. We simply laughed.
And that very university, Carpigiani. It also turned out, unexpectedly, that they run a course I could join. And I did.
Our philosophy
So Manifattura was born
Not in Italy, where of course we have also been, but in Australia and New Zealand. There, where we saw that if you do it honestly and without compromise, people will come. At any time, in any weather. Again and again.
Buontalenti was an architect. Kitty Travers, whose book we found in Australia, is British. We are neither pastry chefs nor Italians. Gelato never asked who you are by profession. It has always chosen those who are ready to do it for real.
Manifattura is built on three things: a product without compromise, a team that knows and loves what it does, and a space where everything serves the taste.
Nothing superfluous.
Manifattura.