Island Gelato recently entered 15 flavours into the Ice Cream and Gelato Awards. After winning 13 medals, we spoke to Hannah Clarke, the Kitchen Manager.
Clarke was born and raised in Auckland, living in Point Chevalier, where her parents encouraged her and her brother to play as many ports as they could. This was when Clarke became known for making a cake for every tournament or birthday.
“I quickly became the go-to person when a cake was needed for someone's birthday.”
Her Nana taught her most cherished baking lessons, which fuelled the creative foodie fire within. Attending schools that didn’t require a uniform meant the first one she ever put on was the chef whites at AUT. She studied for a Diploma of Patisserie at AUT, which was absolute dream come true.
Before working as Island Gelato’s Kitchen Manager, for five years, Clarke had her own business making custom cakes, then worked at Bluebells Cakery as Head Chef. She was drawn to Island Gelato due to the emphasis on quality, using local ingredients and artisanal products. Clarke’s boss, Ana, is also incredibly passionate, which trickles down through from design to production.
“I had one interview, but it was clear we were on the same wavelength and had the same vision. I remember talking about growing their gelato cake range as one of my goals, and they were very happy to let me run with that.”
A typical day for the kitchen manager starts with turning on the ovens and getting the cookies baking and ready for store deliveries. She will then pasteurise a batch of milk along with a few other ingredients to start making the gelato flavours and cakes for the day. In the early afternoon, there is usually a meeting with new or existing suppliers to forecast needs for the months ahead. For the rest of the day, Clarke can be found hiding away in the kitchen, working on recipe developments and incorporating the latest round of feedback from the management team.
“There are a fair few taste testings dotted throughout the day too….”
Lockdown prevented the 2021 Ice Cream and Gelato awards from going ahead, so the team at Island Gelato were incredibly excited to enter this year. There was a heated debate over the kitchen table when deciding what flavours to enter, as everyone had a favourite. They settled on 15 flavours and won eight gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Clarke is particularly proud of the gold medal for the Espresso Martini gelato flavour, which is a love affair between Kahlua and Allpress espresso. It came about when daily drinking became frowned upon post lockdowns, so creative ways to hide it in food were a must!
The inspiration behind a new gelato flavour can come from anywhere. Clarke and the kitchen team usually start with what is in season and go from there. They have currently been working on a probiotic kombucha sorbet and are realising it is not easy to make kombucha with a consistent flavour profile - each is unique. Island Gelato is also about to start working with Perfectly Imperfect, an organisation that saves locally grown, fresh produce from going to landfill, to see how they can collaborate with farmers.
Like other businesses, Island Gelato is facing a number of challenges, particularly rising ingredient costs and staff shortages.
“There was a point when we completely ran out of cones to serve to customers! We could only serve gelato in cups.”
Clarke’s favourite scoop is the Banoffee Pie flavour - roasted banana gelato, banana jam, dulce de leche, Stracciatella and crunchy toffee pieces. It is creamy, sweet and tastes just like a piece of banoffee pie
Island Gelato opened its fourth store on Ponsonby road earlier this year and is opening number five in early November. Clarke said nothing more than it will be at a very popular beach out east. The gelato is currently only available in scoop shops, but the maker also said to watch this space.
On a final note, Clarke wanted to make sure readers understood the differences between gelato and ice cream. Gelato has less air and fat than ice cream does, it is denser, and the flavour comes to the pallet much faster. That is why Gelato tends to have a stronger taste than ice cream.
“Come into one of our stores to try some samples and see what I mean!”
