Avo’ guess at one Adelaide chef’s secret gelato ingredient
An Adelaide chef has won a top award for his latest culinary creation, inspired by his Italian heritage with an Aussie twist.
Gelato chef Andrea Calabrese grew up in Italy amongst a family of pastry chefs and gelato makers, but when he moved to Australia, he discovered a new culinary delight: the avocado.
“I wanted to experiment with what Australia could offer me, and one of these ingredients was the avocado,” Calabrese tells City Mag.
Calabrese recently returned from Melbourne, where he won the Australian Gelato Cup Critics Choice Award at Fine Food Australia for his savoury-inspired avocado and Tahitian lime gelato with an extra virgin olive oil ripple.
The different aspects of the flavour are representative of Calabrese’s life, he says.
“I’ve been thinking of my journey, which started in Italy, where olive oil is a totem, especially where I come from,” he says.
“Puglia is one of the biggest producers of olive oil.
“And then avocado. I discovered this flavour here in Australia,” he says.
The addition of the Tahitian lime was inspired by his Argentinian partner, Maria, who introduced him to the South American way of eating avocado, which involves combining the fruit with lime.
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“Italy was and always will be my home, but Australia is now what home is for me, because I share my life with this amazing person,” he adds.
Despite this flavour being out of the box, Calabrese values the traditional flavours of Italy.
“My dream here is to educate people to eat traditional Italian authentic Italian gelato.”
Calabrese runs La Viennese in Sterling, where the award-winning flavour is on sale, but is surrounded on the menu by traditional flavours like fior di latte and pistachio.
Learning from his grandfather, who had his own pastry and gelato shop, Calabrese says that he grew up as an employer, but was not expecting such local support for his gelatería.
“The locals in Sterling surprised me,” he says.
“The support we received at the shop from locals was outstanding. We literally couldn’t do anything without them.”
Calabrese already has his eyes set on next year’s competition.
“I’m already thinking of next year’s competition, and I’m thinking of using native herbs to be even closer to Australia,” he says.
“In Australia there are many fruits that we don’t have in Europe, especially native herbs, which I’m planning to use. I have to kind of discover and study what Australia can give me.”
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