It is generally believed that ice cream appeared in Ancient China about 5,000 years ago. Considering that the invention of almost all gastronomic wonders is attributed to Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome, the case of ice cream is a rarity. Although, of course, anyone could have thought of freezing fruits, mixing them with ice, honey, nuts, and serving them as a refreshment. In Rus', they say, in ancient times they ate shaved frozen milk.
But let us be faithful to the legend. According to it, the recipe for fruit ice cream was brought to Europe by Marco Polo from China in the early 14th century. Since then and to this day, Italians are the main ice cream makers of the Western world. In the mid-17th century, Sicilian confectioners perfected the recipes, and at the same time, ice cream began to spread around the world. It must be said that until the 16th century, making ice cream was considered (and perhaps was) something miraculous and was kept secret by initiates. But already in 1600, Giovanni Bosio organized the first ice cream cafe in the town of New York, in the newly discovered America, and in 1686, the Sicilian Francesco Procopio opens a cafe in Paris itself (the restaurant Le Procope still exists), it is the first cafe in the city where both coffee and about 80 types of ice cream are served.
From then on, the secret finally ceases to be a secret. Ice cream becomes fashionable. Cooks begin to mix and freeze everything in sight. The predecessor of modern classics - vanilla cream from milk and cream appears in France as early as the mid-15th century. However, the fame of ice cream at the French court began even earlier - in the mid-16th century, when the Italian Catherine de Medici, marrying the French king Henry II, brought her chef from Italy. But it was 'Procope' that made ice cream a completely accessible treat, spawning a host of followers. One can imagine the visitors of the ice cream cafes of that time, settled in the Palais-Royal. And you call it a 'children's treat'.
Then more. In the 19th century, the French begin to make plombir (from the name of the town Plombières, which is considered the birthplace of plombir) - today the richest and most caloric creamy ice cream. At the same time, it begins to be served in cups. Meanwhile, the popularity of ice cream grows across the ocean - in America, from the mid-19th century, active improvement of refrigeration apparatus begins, which eventually leads to the mass production of almost modern freezers. And ice cream ceases to be a delicacy.
This is the right time to remember the 'eskimo on a stick' beloved by Soviet children. In 1919, American Christian Nelson developed a recipe for ice cream glazed with chocolate, and began transporting his product to cities, selling it, and simultaneously showing a film about Eskimos. The ice cream was called 'Eskimo Pie' (Eskimo pie), eventually 'Pie' dropped out, and the ice cream on a wooden stick became simply called 'eskimo'.
The twentieth century becomes the century of industrial ice cream, and not only ice cream but also any other food products. It is finally divided into several main types. Without going into technological details, we will only say that today there are two large categories - creamy ice cream and sherbets (sorbets). The first consists of dairy products (milk, cream, yogurt, even ryazhenka), eggs, and natural flavors; sorbets consist only of water, sugar, fruits, or some other filler, for example, alcoholic beverages. The range of industrial ice cream is incredibly wide, but even with all its diversity, it is inferior to the flavor range of hand-made ice cream. True connoisseurs of this treat know that the best ice cream is always handmade, so to speak artisanal, that is, produced in small quantities, in a specific place, according to an original recipe, using local, high-quality ingredients. After all, local products and local recipes are the latest global culinary trend.
Any Italian will tell you: 'Do not believe the signs 'Italian ice cream' - the real thing is only in Italy'. Indeed - ice cream has always been a subject of Italian pride and a sure way to humiliate their eternal gastronomic rivals - the French. Despite the widely marketed brand, Italian ice cream is indeed quite different from its foreign counterparts. Firstly, real Italian ice cream is always artisanal, and if you do not see in the ice cream cafe (gelateria, in Italian) boxes of fresh fruits, berries, pistachios, etc., then this means only one thing - they sell a semi-industrial product made from powders and semi-finished products (nut pastes, frozen fruits, etc.). Secondly, ice cream in Italy comes in several different types. 'Granita' is fruit juice frozen in the form of ice shavings. Actually ice cream, 'sorbetto' is a chilled foam (usually from citrus fruits or mint, or unsweetened fruits) and 'semifreddo' is a chilled soft based on natural cream.
Each 'gelateria' compiles a seasonal menu: in winter they serve creamy-chocolate varieties, in summer - fruit and mixed ones. At the same time, every true ice cream maker has his own specialty. For example, ice cream with hand-ground pistachios (original recipe, costs twice as much as others), with ginger, aromatic herbs, with English sponge cake. The best pistachio and creamy varieties in Milan are served at the ice cream cafe Rigoletto on Via San Siro, 9. Ice cream with tropical fruits and green apple flavor is recommended to try at the gelateria La Bottega del Gelato on Via Pergolesi, 3, and at the ice cream cafe Viel-Natura 8+ on Via Dell'Unione - always the freshest seasonal fruit varieties and frappés.
If you are in Palermo, don't forget to taste the granita from Adelfio Bartolomeo at Corso Dei Mille, 83, as well as the mini ice cream at Cremolose on Piazza Alberico Gentili, 16 or at the famous pastry shop Pasticceria Cappello on Via Colonna Rotta, 68. However, in all Italian cities you can find real Italian ice cream, almost always the sign Gelato artesanale is true.
France, too, has something to boast about. Take any guide to the French capital - everywhere without exception it is stated: Berthillon - the best ice cream in Paris. It is no coincidence that near the small cafe-shop in the heart of old Paris on the Île Saint-Louis you can often see a queue. The history and operating principle of this establishment are quite typical, and this is the answer to the question of such popularity. A family business that has existed for about 50 years, with trade secrets passed down exclusively through the male line - from father to son.
In the mid-1950s, the founder of the business, Monsieur Berthillon, who inherited a small cafe and sold all its contents except for an ice cream machine that no one wanted to buy, began making ice cream and treating the children from a nearby school. Then the restaurant guide "Gault Millau" took notice of the establishment, and Monsieur Berthillon's daughter married a professional ice cream maker, and the business took off. Today, Berthillon sells its ice cream to nearly a hundred restaurants and cafes in Paris and its suburbs, almost catching up with industrial producers in terms of production volume while remaining artisanal in all other respects. Of the 75 flavors, 25-30 are displayed daily, depending on the season. Several types of chocolate, coffee, pistachio, almond ice cream, glazed chestnuts, honey nougat, salted caramel, tea, banana, praline with lemon and coriander, sorbets of fig, blackberry, lychee, orange, pink grapefruit, melon and cherry, rhubarb and currant... The signature ice cream is strawberry, quite rare for Paris, where this berry is a very expensive treat.
The main secret of quality is the freshest natural products and generosity - if you buy a liter of this product, it will be a whole kilogram of cold delicacy. Being a traditional brand, Berthillon offers classic, universally loved ice cream flavors.
And quite nearby, on rue des Grands Degrés, opposite Notre Dame Cathedral, there is the cafe Dammann's, which attracts with unconventional flavors - ice cream with the taste of Bulgarian yogurt, coconut, pastis, honey with orange blossom water. Although they also serve classics. "Vanilla ice cream cannot be white, as the modern dairy industry produces it," says the cafe's creator Thomas Dammanns, and offers his own vanilla ice cream - not perfectly white, but with specks, because the milk base is steeped all night on real vanilla from Madagascar.
And you know what? It's nice to rediscover a product familiar from childhood. The difference is clear even to a child. As they say, Paris is worth a Mass. And ice cream - worth a separate trip.