Taste-makers Bay Area ice cream artisans in hot pursuit of frozen

Oakland Tribune, Jul 26, 2006 by Catherine Nash, CONTRIBUTOR

FOR A KID, no summer evening is complete without a visit to the ice cream parlor, but eventually a scoop a day loses its allure.

Lately, ice cream is heating up again. Baskin-Robbins has introduced sundae bars, more than 2,000 Cold Stone Creamery locations are open, or in the works, and the Bay Area is exploding with premium ice cream parlors and exotic flavors.

"We've always been in love with ice cream, but all of a sudden we're having a new love affair," says Emily Luchetti, the author of "A Passion for Ice Cream" (Chronicle Books, $35) and the pastry chef at San Francisco's Farallon restaurant. "With all the great produce available and good quality chocolate, we can make really, really good ice cream from scratch."

Passion for ingredients is just what drives Sketch owners Eric Shelton and Ruthie Planas to make ice cream seven days a week. Technically what they make is closer to gelato than to ice cream because it has a lower butterfat content, but they shrug off attempts to classify it, focusing instead on how it's made.

Each batch starts with organic Straus milk and sugar. Shelton and Planas both worked as pastry chefs before opening Sketch in Berkeley two summers ago, and they prefer to taste as they go rather than follow a strict recipe.

"Everything is dependent on the sweetness of the fruit," Planas explains.

Three days a week, the husband and wife team trolls farmers markets looking for inspiration. All the fruit they buy is grown locally, and most of it is organic. They take their haul back

to the store, where they cut each blackberry and fig by hand.

Simple ingredients, unexpected flavors

Flavors change by the season and even by the day, and no more than three gallons are made at a time. Standards include burnt caramel, dark chocolate and coffee made with Oakland's Blue Bottle beans. In the summer, flavors like Santa Rosa plum and olallieberry fill the ice cream case, making way for cactus pear and blood orange come fall. But the real thrill is flavors like basil and avocado that push the limits of the palate.

"We want [people-- to taste something out of the ordinary," says Shelton.

Luchetti praises their sense of adventure.

"I love the flavors," she says by

phone. "Some people are always going to go in there and get chocolate chip. But there's another group of people willing to try something different."

At night, whatever is left in the case is melted down and refrozen. This process adds three hours to the workday -- a substantial chunk of time with

only two employees -- but it ensures

just the right texture.from Living 1

Sketch serves ice cream in cups, or atop housemade crepes or flaky brioche. They also fashion custom ice cream sandwiches from fresh baked cookies like pecan lace and lavender shortbread, but you won't find any cones.

"We spend so much time on other things," says Planas. "We would want to make our own cones, too."

The Old Country way

Curtis Chin takes his gelato very seriously. Before opening Gelato Milano last December, the former partner in Mondo Gelato (now Gelateria Naia) flew to Milan in search of an artisan to help him re- create authentic, Italian-style ice cream at home. He left with not one, but two artisans in his employ.

"We wanted to transport people so they get a taste of Milan," says Chin.

By we, Chin is referring to Giordano Mauri and his son Marcello. Giordano lives just outside Milan and has been making gelato for more than 30 years. Two months ago, he sent Marcello to Berkeley to work in the shop's gelato laboratory full-time.

Gelato contains 4-8 percent butterfat, and very little air is incorporated when it is made, resulting in a dense, intensely flavored ice cream. Virtually all commercial gelato starts as a powdered base of milk and sugar. Cream, milk and more sugar are added to make fior di latte, a pure gelato that tastes like sweet milk. Depending on the flavor, fruits, nuts, chocolate or vanilla is added next.

Giordano's first task was to create a base to complement the Berkeley Farms milk and cream that Chin uses. The base is made in Italy, and Chin imports it along with ingredients such as chocolate, pistachios, and candied cherries.

Gelato Milano serves gelato and sorbetto in traditional Italian flavors, which Chin calls by their Italian names, insisting that certain subtle differences cannot be translated. Take hazelnut: Marcello makes five variations including gianduja, with chocolate and roasted hazelnuts, and croccante, made with candied hazelnuts.

"Hazelnut is the most important flavor for gelato," Chin says. "You can tell if it is 100 percent or not."

After closing up at night, Chin grabs dinner before setting off for Oakland's fruit market. He arrives when it opens at 2 a.m. to hand pick grapefruits, lemons and ripe mangoes himself.

Chin's commitment to gelato is echoed in the shop's design. Sleek tables and Philippe Starck-designed stools sit on poured concrete floors. Nothing but white paint adorns the walls, making the vibrant shades of gelato the shop's only decoration.