Austin Chefs Bring Inspired Gelato Flavors to Town

Marcelo Kreindel, owner of Trentino Gelato in Houston, has bold plans for expansion, bringing his acclaimed chef-inspired gelato line to Austin this fall with flavors designed by six of Austin's top culinary names.

For his Austin series, Kreindel chose cocktail king Bill Norris, chef Ned Elliott (Foreign & Domestic), pastry chef Plinio Sandalio (Congress), chef Shawn Cirkiel (parkside), chef James Holmes (Olivia), and Iliana de la Vega (El Naranjo). Plans are for the chefs to rotate flavors seasonally, anywhere from 4-8 times a year.

Trentino began churning six years ago when Kreindel, a native of Argentina, decided to leave his career in software and start making this handcrafted specialty with the best local ingredients and "a lot of passion." He started his first series of chef-inspired flavors this fall in Houston, featuring big names like Monica Pope and Robert Del Grande.

Eater Austin spoke with a few of Austin's finest chosen by Trentino to get the scoop on this gelato coming to town.

Chef Ned Elliott of Foreign & Domestic will introduce pumpkin pie with maple pecans and graham crackers with a lime sherbet swirl as his first flavor. He began thinking of a congee/rice pudding ice cream adaptation, but thought that wouldn't really catch on. Instead he brought back a flavor combination from childhood - a Thanksgiving occasion with family and neighbors that presented him with pumpkin pie but no vanilla ice cream, substituting lime sherbet instead. Instant love. Elliot never really tried the flavor again until later; as an adult, he and his wife Jodi resurrected it while working at a restaurant in New York City.

Chef Shawn Cirkiel of parkside will be doing a coconut lemongrass and Thai basil sorbeto. Cirkiel says, "This will be a dairy and gluten free sorbeto that will be tropical and bright, and transport you hopefully to South east Asia," adding that he "thought about a lot of different flavors both traditional and fun. Then I let my son pick the one he thought was the most fun."

Cocktail master Bill Norris has been working on a honey mezcal prototype, saying that the biggest challenge as been balancing the alcohol content and the texture.

Each carton of ice cream will feature a sketch of the recipe creator, which sometimes resembles a mugshot drawn by a talented police station sketcher. An artist has already taken a photo of each chef to work from, and they will then have 3-4 renderings to choose from.

Trentino Gelato should be on the shelves of Central Market around Thanksgiving.

· Trentino's Plan of World Domination Begins With Austin [Eater Houston]
· All Trentino Gelato Coverage from Eater Houston [-EATX-]