Stefano Dondoli

His starting point is a deep respect for the ingredients, but his outlook is contemporary, and he is always looking for something new.

Sorbets are, for him, one of the most interesting technical challenges. They look simple and they are not. A handful of ingredients hides a delicate balance that takes precision, sensitivity and patient research to get right.

In Stefano's hands, the laboratory is an open space. He talks to chefs, friends and colleagues, and he is never afraid to rethink a recipe from scratch. He looks at the flavours of the past through what we know today, building tastes that are layered, considered and often surprising.

Cross-pollination shapes the way he works. Different food cultures keep feeding new ideas, from Japan to Thailand, through France the language of contemporary haute cuisine. Each influence is absorbed, rethought and turned into a new balance of flavour. It is the same conversation now running through restaurants around the world, and in the Dondoli laboratory it takes the shape of gelato that carries journeys, ideas and encounters with it.

Among his creations are Mango Thai, Lychee and Rose, My Passion for Vernaccia, Hazelnut and Tonka, San Lucchese, Giappone and Matchami, alongside many other experiments that keep adding to the identity of Gelateria Dondoli.