A trip that had them exploring the food and culture of Tuscany, Venice, Cinqua Terre, Siena and Lake Como saw Nathalie Bercier-Gauthier and Joe Gauthier return home from Italy full to the rim of a \u201cmedio\u201d cup of sweet ideas.<\/p>\n
The pair own and operate Caf\u00e9 sur la Rive, in Plantagenet, and they were eager to introduce another food passion to the area: Nonna\u2019s Gelato.<\/p>\n
There is something near-mythical about the ritual: a stroll through a downtown park \u2013 if not an Italian piazza \u2013 eating gelato on a still-warm summer evening.<\/p>\n
The word itself refers to both frozen, in its simplest Italian meaning, and a sweet, cold dessert \u2013 but the differences between gelato and ice cream are significant, if not immediately visually noticeable.<\/p>\n
Traditionally using milk rather than cream, gelato has no eggs and is churned more slowly than ice cream, a process which introduces significantly less air into the resulting deliciousness, a key factor in the texture and concentration of gelato flavour that develops.<\/p>\n
It’s a process \u2013 and an iconic food \u2013 that Bercier-Gauthier and Gauthier have come to understand quite well over the past four or so years.<\/p>\n
The business, built out in an older home that backs onto the South Nation River, asks you to make a choice when you enter: turn to the left and you\u2019re heading to the gelato cooler-case; turn to the right and you\u2019re in the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The business model over the last few years has been a complicated one: during the first pandemic lockdown, the caf\u00e9 started preparing home-cooked meals for take-away, a response to serving people who didn\u2019t want to cook and couldn\u2019t visit restaurants for sit-in dining.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people don\u2019t like to cook but during Covid they still wanted to have their treats, so we decided to make food and opened the patio when permitted to do so,\u201d Bercier-Gauthier says.<\/p>\n
Then, the gelato worked its way into the Caf\u00e9 sur la Rive plans in 2021, a year later \u2013 but only in a provisional way that was perhaps the metaphoric equivalent of dipping one\u2019s toes into the slow-moving river, only a few metres away, and buying pre-made gelato from an Ottawa-based gelato maker, according to Bercier-Gauthier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a test, to feel out the market. Will gelato sell in Plantagenet? Will it work before we make an investment given the cost of the machine and so on?\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly it worked.<\/p>\n
But soon, Bercier-Gauthier and Gauthier wanted to be better and shifted gears to making their own gelato to satisfy their own tastes and be able to offer a changing menu of flavours and \u201cgelato for different occasions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
They purchased a Carpigiani gelato machine, and today, depending on the weather, Nonna\u2019s Gelato might sell up to 60 litres of house-made gelato or more on an average week during the summer.<\/p>\n
Initial plans to train to become gelato masters at a \u201cgelato university\u201d in Bologna were cancelled by pandemic obstacles and instead they found mentorship in an Ontario-based gelato master.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe helped us with recipes, and we called him to help with processes when we needed,\u201d Bercier-Gauthier says.<\/p>\n
Taking its cue from the matriarchal name, the Nonna\u2019s Gelato menu is a family tree of flavours: nonno Lorenzo\u2019s vanilla, suocera Fleurette\u2019s apple pie and various figli and nopotini flavours from hazelnut to Oreo cookies.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery second week or third week, I make a new recipe. This week it was strawberry-rhubarb cheesecake. And it\u2019s all gone,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are our basics and classics like cookies-and-cream, which are always there, but then there\u2019s something new like black licorice.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pan of blueberry gelato, currently in production, uses fresh fruit from Vergers Villeneuve Farm, about 20 minutes away. Equally delicious was a sampling of hazelnut gelato that I tried.<\/p>\n
Nonna\u2019s Gelato is made with organic cane sugar, grape sugar and whole milk, rather than the 35% cream of ice cream; Bercier-Gauthier also brings in special ingredients from Italy.<\/p>\n
She points out that a recipe for a five-litre pan of gelato would produce nearly 15 litres of ice cream because of the air whipped into ice cream \u2013 and the subsequent flavour would be spread out over those 15 litres rather than the five for gelato.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do is really pure, authentic gelato,\u201d Bercier-Gauthier says of the texture and concentrated flavour.<\/p>\n
To enjoy their gelato, customers can descend a set of stairs outside that takes them riverside and to a half-dozen or so tables and chairs with umbrellas.<\/p>\n
They may also note a lot of cyclists dropping in \u2013 a classic Italian sweet and cycling just seem to go together \u2013 because Nonna\u2019s Gelato is part of Ontario by Bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have parking for all those nice bikes. We might get groups of 20 or 40 cyclists visiting us here in the morning,\u201d Bercier-Gauthier says. \u201cThey stop, have a gelato and coffee and head back out to wherever they\u2019re riding to.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a sandwich or a wrap from the caf\u00e9, you can also take gelato away in a cooler-sampler pack. There is a plant-based gelato option as well.<\/p>\n
Biking or not, riverside or not: it\u2019s all part of sharing the gelato experience in Plantagenet, according to Bercier-Gauthier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the flavours but also the textures. It\u2019s creamy and silken with flavour, and it\u2019s almost like you\u2019re eating right into the fruit,\u201d she says. \u201cBut when people visit, we want it to be like visiting friends and family. Gelato makes you happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nonna\u2019s Gelato is open Tuesday to Sunday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., year-round.<\/p>\n
Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of \u201cFarm to Table\u201d and co-author of \u201cCooking with Shakespeare.\u201d Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A trip that had them exploring the food and culture of Tuscany, Venice, Cinqua Terre, Siena and Lake Como saw Nathalie Bercier-Gauthier and Joe Gauthier return home from Italy full to the rim of a \u201cmedio\u201d cup of sweet ideas. The pair own and operate Caf\u00e9 sur la Rive, in Plantagenet, and they were eager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":102614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affaires"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n