One would think that hearing the owners’ names of
Maria and Tony a Gelateria would not expect the full names of Maria Chee and
Tony Liu. Maria and Tony partnered up to
open Chillato, a strict Gelateria located at 17-16 154 Street in Whitestone. No, you won’t find ice cream here.
How did this scrumptious endeavor come to pass? Maria and her husband John Zefi are world travelers, having taken in the
Rome area of Italy as well as Spain’s Seville, an area also noted for gelato. Impressed with the difference between ice
cream and gelato, they spoke with several gelato makers about their base line
recipes and flavor recipes. Here, in the US, they worked with several gelato
manufacturers learning how to produce this elegant dessert.
Maria said that she and Tony have known each other
for several years due to their children going to school together. They were looking to open a store in the
neighborhood that would be more of a family hangout in the community and
decided on gelato because, “Who doesn’t love gelato”, said Maria. John, by the
way, is also a partner as well as Tony’s wife, Linda.
Chillato proved to have a colorful and welcoming environment
as experienced seeing the faces of the customers, not to mention the glow when
they taste it. Most of the staff was
present including Christine Jean, who, due to her career, was being gelato
trained in the kitchen. Up front were
Marilyn Carpio and Billy Plantin.
Let’s get to the basic info. Gelato, is the Italian word for “ice cream”
and there is a big difference between the contents and consistency of ice cream
vs. gelato. Two of the main ingredients in both ice cream and gelato are milk
and cream. However, it is the amount of each that changes the desserts. As the
name implies, "ice cream" contains more cream than milk vs gelato,
which is made with a greater proportion of whole milk to cream and in some
cases, no cream at all. Gelato is also
free of egg yolks, of which ice cream tends to include.
Tony said that due to the storage of ice cream, it has to be at a lower temperature than gelato and thus needing more sugar. “When it’s much colder you get a quick numbness on your tongue requiring it to have even more flavor.” John said that the core base product is imported from Italy. “We then add our fresh recipes. In fact, the gelatos that are displayed have most likely come out of the kitchen only an hour ago and then have to be replenished.”
The base of gelato is called sweet milk, not to be confused with what might appear to be vanilla. Hearing about my favorite dessert, I scooted over there to find that they allow you to taste as many flavors as you want. I tasted every one of them and put my seal of approval on the authenticity having sampled gelato at several places yet only totally pleased with a few.
I first met Maria and then Tony, who although we did have time to talk, was mostly in the kitchen creating the various flavors as they were running out as well as training Christine Jean in the art of gelato making. He later told me that when time is not of the essence, he loved working up front and speaking with the customers.
Hazelnut, known as Nocciola, is my favorite flavor of which I saved for my last tasting. Chocolate is my second favorite. One of my least favorites is coconut. They had just made a batch and had not placed it out yet. My first flavor taste had me totally surprised at how much I did enjoy the coconut gelato.
My tendency on both ice cream and gelato is to choose bare flavors vs. ones such as “s’mores,” “raspberry cheese cake,” “lemon butter cookies and cream,” “oreo cookies and cream”, and “salted caramel” although I did have an appreciation for the palate of each.
Tiramisu, Pistachio, and Coffee were some examples of the use of the true ingredients vs flavorings. Stracciatella is basically chocolate swirled into the sweet milk, the core of gelato. The chocolate hardens like the coating on an ice cream pop.
I continued putting off the last one, to taste two chocolates. One was a milk chocolate gelato that was not overly sweet. I tend to shy away from milk chocolate for that reason. However, this had to be the best I have had. A second one was a deep dark chocolate that was made with water and skim milk powder. Although I relished its sorbet consistency, the powder gave it the classification of being a gelato. It tasted like having a European version of hot chocolate, which contains much more water than milk. Kind of like when you put a small amount of milk into coffee.
Next, I meandered to the sorbet area to sample: mango; raspberry lychee; passionfruit; strawberry; and lemon, all of which had the true taste of the fruit and less sweet then I expected, which makes the fruit stand out even more. Excellent palate cleansers as well. I found the raspberry lychee to be quite creative in the combination.
Now it was time for the hazelnut and well worth the waiting. Maria said that this was the most popular flavor and had to be made often as it quickly ran out. Beyond this is their signature, “Ferraro Roche,” a hazelnut gelato with chocolate swirled into it (which was not available at this time).
Chillato also offers these small gelato pops. Maria said that being a new place (having opened about a month ago) they were experimenting since they create their own recipes. Pops flavors this day were: lemon cookies and cream, salted caramel, biscotti, chocolate, and sweet milk. I suggested dipping the coconut gelato in chocolate to call it a “mounds pop.”
“Rather than mass produce, we are trying to create unique flavor profiles with each gelato that we serve,” said John. “For instance we made a ‘peanut butter and jelly’ and our much requested ‘raspberry cheesecake.’”
Chillato will be one of the featured restaurants at the upcoming Taste of Whitestone, on Thursday May 2. You should expect two gelatos and one sorbet. For further information call: (718) 489-1750 or www.chillatoshop.com
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