Melbourne gelateria Piccolina has announced a new project alongside eight of Victoria’s leading chefs.
Chefs including Shannon Martinez (Smith and Daughters); Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook); Dave Verheul (Embla); Tom Sarafian (Little Andorra); Zoe Birch (Greasy Zoes); Aaron Turner (Igni); Sam Stafford (Mono-XO) and Andreas Papadakis (Tipo 00) have all stepped up to each create three flavours for the Piccolina Gelato Project.
The creations will take over the specials board at all six Piccolina locations for one week at a time.
Liong is the first to kick off the series from 10 February with three flavourways including a jasmine tea custard and burnt caramel gelato.
“As a chef who owns and works in each of my restaurants, it is harder to learn about new processes,” says Liong. “This project has given me a chance to delve into a really cool and exciting area of food that I’ve always been interested in.”
Sarafian’s creations cover a yoghurt gelato with Persian saffron and passionfruit curd with Verheul heroing a cultured butter gelato with butter biscuit and salted brown butter caramel.
Martinez has put some of Smith & Daughters most popular dishes on show with a cardamon and cinnamon doughnut gelato along with dark vegan chocolate gelato with ancho chilli caramel.
Piccolina Founder Sandra Foti says the collaborative experience has been phenomenal.
“Everyone absolutely jumped at the opportunity,” she says. “I was blown away and felt pretty humbled by how much everyone already knew and loved Piccolina. It made the whole thing even more special.”
Extended flavour list below:
Tom Sarafian: Goat’s feta gelato with crushed marmool and green fig and toasted seasame jam. Pineapple sorbet with arak and basil oil drops.
Dave Verheul: Lemon sherbert, lemongrass and lemon verbena gelato. Porcini gelato with chocolate, thyme and sour apple.
Andreas Papadakis: Fior di latte and potato gelato with green olive caramel. Buffalo ricotta, basil oil and rosemary gelato. Fior di latte, caramelised radicchio, balsamic and chocolate gelato.
Shannon Martinez: Corn and blueberry gelato with corn-infused oat milk, blueberry swirl and candied corn kernels.
Images: Kristoffer Paulsen