Bio
I live a passing age, I no longer believe in generational clashes, I commit myself to do good things. An ice cream that brings back memories, a chocolate of satisfaction. My work is changing and there is no paternity to claim. There is a story, there is experimentation, there is a desire for exploration, there is a past that is made up of many experiences, so many aids, so many recognitions, so many supports. And there is a future, which is already now.
Paolo Brunelli
Biography
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Paolo Brunelli Has two sales points. The first is that of Agugliano in via Vittorio Emanuele II n. 3, run by his family, the second in Senigallia in via Carducci 7 in the historic center. The third is under construction and will be inaugurated in the spring of 2020 in Marzocca, a district of Senigallia.
From June 2009 to June 2017 he was artistic director of the Gelato Artigianale Festival in Agugliano (Ancona), an event that is usually held in the second week of June and continues to be a reference competition.
In 2011 the “Crema Brunelli” was awarded the 2011 Gourmet Award. It is the master flavor of the master ice cream maker and is always present in paper.
In May 2015, Paolo Brunelli received a high award for the Torta Brunelli, a gianduja chocolate cake and Cravanzana hazelnuts for Expo, the universal exhibition fair.
In January 2016, Avanguardia Gelato was released, the first book by Paolo Brunelli written with three other colleagues (Soban, Cutelli and Marchetti). A real manual of modern ice cream parlor published by Italian Gourmet.
In March 2016 Paolo Brunelli participated in Identità Golose (Gelato section), the international convention of high gastronomy, giving a lecture on Subversive Tradition, journey in the recognition of the fifth taste and in the disruption of color. The experience was repeated in 2017 with the lesson entitled: Cristoforo Colombo did not like chocolate. Then in 2018 and will also be present in the one to be held next March.
Since April 2016 he has been organizing demonstration lessons for Valrhona Italia throughout the national and European territory and is the author of editorial material distributed among the company’s customers.
He is one of the founding members (together with Andrea Soban and Alberto Marchetti) of the Compagnia Gelatieri. He is currently its president. He participated in Terra Madre 2016 in the Via del Gelato – Salone del Gusto 2016 Turin -. His Terra Madre taste is made specifically for the event.
Numerous collaborations are underway for the combination of chocolate and ice cream with artisanal productions from other sectors. The first with Fabi Shoes, a well-known brand from the Marche region, which involves combining spreads with high-quality footwear; the second with Pantheon fragrances on the occasion of the release of Sweet Passion whose fragrance refers to a chocolate cream prepared by Paolo Brunelli exclusively for the brand.
He has lectured on ice cream for Cast Alimenti and Arte del Convivio.
In January 2017 he obtained the three cones from the Gambero Rosso with a special mention for the best Italian chocolate ice cream. In 2018 the three cones were confirmed and also in 2019.
In March 2017 the book Gelateria for all seasons published by Italian Gourmet is released.
In July 2017 he won the prestigious recognition from the Dissapore website as the best ice cream shop in Italy.
In July 2018, the record obtained the previous year by Dissapore was reconfirmed.
Our manifesto
In our current times, Gelato made the real way needs more dignity and more consideration. Undiscussibly it is a product whose seasonality is now not limited to summertime, and it is no longer a child’s food. Also chocolate is constantly being sought out and demanded more and more from, so that it is a continuous emotion. So is gelato. It is evident that many professionals like me have started a sort of product battle for gelato, a real exploration in search of excellent raw materials, healthy combinations, elimination of the superfluous for a ‘gelato label’ of the product to be as clean as possible. This process clearly leads to a costs reassessment, to the downsizing of outdated concepts that have led to the idea that a gelato artisanal shop, or even a chocolate shop, can be created and maintained with a low economic outlay. This is not the case, absolutely not. We do our best and we use the best and to do this we need investment, research, honesty and time. Good things make a certain noise, as we show you in these web pages. They make a in sound, they awaken memories and they have a much higher price than food from industrial chains.
Then there is the problem of HR training. We do not yet have adequate courses to prepare the gelato shop staff, the people who are at the counter every day and have to propose, present, explain and tempt customers. Work in an artisanal gelato shop is still conceived by young employeed as a seasonal job for some pocket money, to fund a vacation. It cannot be like this forever. Too many mercenaries, too many young people who are unmotivated and torn down by the job effort and the summer shifts that are among the most intense in the industry. We need a sort of grace in serving gelato, we need patience, this is a job that must be done with Culture. Finally, furnishing a gelato shop in a different way from the usual ice cream shops, was our first stake to give the right importance to gelato that we believe should be given. Of course, it’s only a question of image. However, it’s in that small space shop in Senigallia town, Italy, that we wanted, when we opened, to show our commitment to the product and everything around it. Now we continue with this renewed website that transmits you the music that every day is emitted by the machines inside our gelato laboratory. And we will push even further with the new shop that will be inaugurated next spring.
Publications
On the occasion of Sigep 2016, the book ‘Avanguardia Gelato’ published by Italian Gourmet and written by the master gelato makers Paolo Brunelli, Alberto Marchetti, Gianfrancesco Cutelli and Andrea Soban was presented. One hundred recipes and a journey into tradition but also into contemporary ice cream that includes granitas and sorbets. My point of view… No professional career can be described in a few lines. The enthusiasms, the moments of solitude, the risk of making wrong choices, the hazards and the impulses that instead turned out to be profitable, have characterized forty years of my history. A story that began in a small town in the province of Ancona, in the Marche region. The future of those born in a family of restaurateurs seems to have already been written. The road seems to have already been cleared, the choices almost obligatory. You know you will have a life like your mother’s, you know that she has protected you for many years and you know that one day you will face the daily squabbles alone, without a parachute. I was young when I thought my future would be in catering and hospitality. Having a restaurant and a hotel means carrying out two activities at the same time, it means doubling with respect to responsibilities, it also means thinking about close but different goals. My adolescence and my first youth then passed between attempts. I tried to serve, I tried to “reason” about the needs of those who sit down to dinner, I also tried to think what to do if one day all this was going to be my tomorrow. The restlessness of those years, groping among continuous “trials”, was fortunately shaped by the passion for music, a great love that I tried to turn into a profession as some of my skills were recognized. The experiences in the recording studios, the closeness of true music lovers, and an ever-widening knowledge of the musical landscape without foreclosures and without prejudice has certainly contributed to creating that inner harmony that at times has managed to combat the character’s impatience with which I still do the accounts. There were times when the music was enough for me, others in which it was completely insufficient to answer my many questions. I had to create a space for myself. A lot of square meters in which I could be myself, I could say how I felt without fear of being judged, but also a space to test myself. It was at the bases that my grandmother, who I appealed, had placed in the world of ice cream. I clung to them and started writing my future with them. I approached ice cream with deep respect because ice cream is for everyone. It makes no distinction, it does not look at the age of people, it reaches everyone’s wallet. Precisely because it is so popular it is always strongly judged and compared. I certainly didn’t have the knowledge that would have served to get to building an optimal product and that’s why I didn’t miss an opportunity to hang out with those who knew more than me. To enroll in the course of the moment, to increase my knowledge, to put my profession, the one I had chosen, on a more solid basis. Curiosity was the mistress of a boy who was not yet a man, who entered on tiptoe and struggled to widen between the exuberance of men from the front row. For years I worked in an underground laboratory: little light, little room for dreams until they became so large as to require a larger and surfacing space. That underground of Agugliano, this is the name of my country, was the incubator of my profession. There the biggest attempts were made, there I started experimenting with combinations, raw materials and looking for an ice cream that could be a gourmet dish. I was looking for satisfaction, I was looking for praise, I was also looking for popularity in my dreams. It was like this that I managed to “create” myself among a thousand ups and downs.
Passion. From here, as by now those who know me know perfectly, it all started. And the approach to chocolate, to a refined, delicious world, perhaps even too ‘educated’ with respect to the manual skills that the trade of ice cream makers requires, was a crescendo of emotions, discoveries and, certainly, sacrifices. If my path in ice cream parlors has been in progressive but constant phases, chocolate thrives on practical but not technical interruptions, due to the commitment that the summer season requires to our activities. And yet, over the years, making chocolate has become an integral part of my training, but also of the proposal that is made in ice cream and that allows me to extend the opening period, to make the customer even more loyal, to give, in short, a further opportunity to visit us.
Over the years I have clearly experienced experimentation, if we want to use a more practical term than attempts. Understand what the customer wants, which product could be more appealing, think and imagine why they should buy my chocolate when industries offer all kinds and certainly at a more competitive price. Without counting the number of companies that still offer a good product at a much lower cost, promoting it to the sound of millions of investments in the major networks. Clearly many of the resources are absorbed by the packaging which requires a huge economic effort. Chocolate wants to be presented in all its beauty. Although it must be said and stressed with equal clarity, that often the ice cream parlor customer is satisfied with “good” packaging, but always with a touch of refinement, to show that the product is handmade.
Leaving aside the issues that must be addressed once the product has been created, return to my attempts. Milk chocolate, once liked more than dark chocolate. Today the opposite happens. White chocolate is more suitable for children, while adult people actually eat it. The pralines enriched with local products, especially characteristic liqueurs, have a disruptive effect on taste.
This is the origin of this volume, which is neither technical nor technical, but a stimulator of ideas because each recipe can be customized based on your memories, your feelings and the fruits of your land. Here is the fruit of my experiences, of the stubbornness in gathering advice and suggestions, in admiring and studying Masters of great depth and unquestionable professionalism. In short, a manual to give you an extra opportunity and to give it to your activities in the hope that the ice cream maker can reach a level ofcompleteness hoped for generations. We are no longer satisfied with just “ice cream”, this is true and we need new stimuli to grow, to continue to compete, but above all, not to stop.