Gelato according to Alessandro Racca scientific culture and a lot of passion for an all-Italian must.
Alessandro can be defined as a son of art because his father was the first pastry chef to set foot in Japan and to contaminate the “red sun” with the culinary culture of the Italian flag. Alessandro’s path begins right in the family pastry shop, and then continues in various professionalizing schools, making all his knowledge grow in a scientific way.
The patisserie that is in its DNA expands into professional advice on naturally leavened leavened pastries, mignon pastries, technical and practical chocolate, production of ice cream and semifreddo, company organizational management and problems.
He collaborates with the largest chocolate companies in Europe and beyond, contributing to the development of new products and processing techniques and until 2012 he was in charge of CARPILAB, the experimental ice cream shop located at CARPIGIANI HQ.
President of SIGEP Giovani 2015 and member of the Jury in the last 5 editions, as well as organizing member of the Gelato Giovani Award to be held on 25 and 26 March 2019 in Turin. Preparatory day last 12 November at the IIS. “G. Giolitti ”in Turin where Alessandro, as a teacher, explained the mathematics of ice cream with its balancing and freezing, history and technique of semifreddo to future participants in the competition.
Because he has made ice cream a true art as he has been able to combine the flavors of the most solid and ancient tradition with the most modern and current trends. Among the first, he sensed the added value of local products by adding olive oil in the preparation of both the desserts and the ice cream itself. He owns the Sanremo flower ice cream, a flavoring used also for sorbets and granitas, a way, says Alessandro Racca, to pay homage to the scents and colors of a splendid territory such as Liguria “.
Today Alessandro Racca juggles his laboratory, the development of new technologies related to the world of ice cream and the various teachings around the world including those at the Carpigiani Gelato University. Technique, mathematics, culinary science, territory and passion are the exact doses for Alessandro Racca’s perfect ice cream… a powerful condensation of happiness!
Michela Cenci
Cultural Events Magazine
Winner Most Loved 2021, 2022
Italian ice cream expert creates sorbet made from snail mucus
Anyone for slime sorbet? Buon Appetito
Forget lemon or raspberry, snail is the sorbet flavour of the season. Well, it is when Alessandro Racca is making it.
In what is believed to be a world first – we certainly haven’t come across any ice cream parlours shipping snail sorbet – the gelato master combined snail secretions, sugar and water to make the signature frozen dessert.
Racca was “impressed by the emulsifying and binding qualities” of the mollusk mucus, The Telegraph reports, and claims the finished result tastes “surprisingly good”. But he would say that, wouldn’t he?
Dubious flavour claims aside, his creation has serious intentions. Snail slime can improve digestion in cancer patients, so Racca crafted the strawberry sorbet for children in a bid to make the treatment a little more palatable.
Tania Bosio, who oversees more than two million snails at her snail farm in northern Italy. Totally normal career choice.
“I was amazed at the emulsifying and stabilising properties of the product, which is totally natural and organic” Racca said.
“There is still a lot of study to do because the recipe was thought up on the spot and I need to do some more tests on the chemical and physical characteristics of the product. But we are off to a good start.”
His sorbet is set to be presented – where else? – at a festival of Italian snail farmers in Piedmont later this month. Not bad going. In fact, you could say that Racca… snailed it. We’ll see ourselves out.
Sep. 11 2018