Simona Silvestri at work at the newly opened La Fenice Gelateria and Italian Caffe.
Salvatore Scuro and Simona Silvestri could make chocolate gelato in 10 minutes with one machine if they chose to.
They choose to take their time instead.
They spend more than six hours to get it extra smooth with all the flavors blended. They use three machines, with temperatures ranging from 184 to minus-27 degrees Celsius.
The couple whips up chocolate and tiramisu, nutella, and vanilla flavored gelato in the back kitchen of their new storefront La Fenice Gelateria and Italian Caffe at 630 Chapel St. at the corner of Olive on the edge of New Haven’s Little Italy neighborhood. (The shop is open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.)
They make all the items for sale there — from espresso to crepes to egg dishes to croissants to tarts to muffins — from hand, with natural ingredients.
The goal is to make food that tastes just like what people eat in their native Italy.
“Everything we do is homemade and from scratch,” Simona said between serving customers Monday afternoon.
“We want to be authentic. People say, ‘I was in Italy. I had gelato.’ We say, ‘You can have it here’ ” the way it’s really made, she said. “You see the difference.”
The couple moved to the U.S. from Lecce, Italy, 18 years ago to chase the American dream. They started working in a Fairfield County caffe that they eventually bought from the owner. They opened several others.
Last year a real estate agent popped in to the couple’s Westport caffe. He works for the Whit — one of the three new apartment complexes that have filled in surface lots and underdeveloped land between Wooster Square and Downtown during New Haven’s construction boom. I heard you make the best espresso, the real estate agent said. He left a card. He urged them to come to New Haven, to open a new shop to fill one of the empty storefronts on the Whit’s first floor.
The partners weren’t sure at first. But the timing was good: The landlord had just doubled the rent at their Greenwich shop to $12,000 a month.
They decided to take the plunge. They came up with the name “fenice” — which means “phoenix” in Italian — to reflect the rebirth of the business they’re working hard on in New Haven.
The passion and joy they bring to their work is unmistakable as you watch them serve customers, describe their offerings, or prepare their food.
Emerging from machine # 2 ...
In the back kitchen, Salvatore walked me through the steps to producing a batch of chocolate gelato.
He starts by mixing the base: regular sugar, dextrose, glucose, skim milk powder, neutro (ice cream stabilizer).
He pours it into a “Pastomaster,” where it gets pasteurized for six hours at temperatures ranging from 39 to 184 degrees. The combination of varying temperatures and use of an “exchanger pump” (which “ensures high micronization of fat globules”) makes the eventual gelato creamier and more stable than the quicker process used to whip together a full batch in minutes with one machine, he said.
Next Salvatore pours both the pasteurized base and the flavoring into a second machine, which mixes them together for ten minutes.
The final step is placing the finished product at the subzero-set freezer for five minutes. The extra-cold temperature ensures air doesn’t escape, thus preserving the gelato’s creaminess.
Among the customers filing in and out Monday was Ryan Geonzon, who lives across the street at the Strouse-Adler apartments. He wanted to try the tiramisu gelato.
“That’s really good gelato,” he concluded in between smooth bites.
Ryan Geonzon: Satisfied customer.
Fresh-mango sorbetto: A vegan winner.
