Gelato Messina: The Recipes
Cookbooks Food Science Culinary Education Australian Cuisine Professional Cooking Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts Dessert & Baking Artisan & Gourmet Food
Nick Palumbo’s Gelato Messina: The Recipes is the definitive backstage pass to Australia’s most cult-followed gelateria, now captured in a sturdy, gift-worthy hardback. Printed in English and released in 2013 by Hardie Grant, this 320-page, fully illustrated volume distills twenty years of Messina’s obsessive flavour development into a single kitchen companion. At 258 mm × 208 mm and just over 1.3 kg, the book feels as luxurious as the frozen desserts it celebrates, yet every recipe is written for motivated home-cooks as well as pastry professionals. From the iconic Salted Caramel & White Chocolate to the theatrical Dr. Evil’s Magic Mushroom, each flavour is broken down into modular components—bases, sauces, variegati, and inclusions—so readers learn the building blocks of gelato artistry rather than simply copying flavours.
What sets this title apart from other dessert cookbooks is its technical rigour presented in plain language. Palumbo devotes the opening chapters to the science of balancing sugar, fat, and water, explaining how to achieve the silky, elastic texture that keeps queues snaking around Messina stores nightly. Step-by-step photography demystifies tricky stages like tempering egg yolks for custard bases or properly churning gelato to –8 °C, while conversion tables and troubleshooting tips turn even a humble domestic ice-cream maker into a precision tool. The result is a book that not only teaches you how to recreate 100+ signature flavours but also arms you with the know-how to invent your own balanced recipes from scratch.
Collectors prize this first-edition hardcover for its thick, matte pages that lie flat while mixing and its vibrant full-colour photography that doubles as coffee-table art. Because the title has never been reprinted in an equivalent high-quality format, clean copies are increasingly scarce, making this very-good-condition example a smart acquisition for both avid bakers and memorabilia hunters. Whether you are a young adult discovering artisan techniques or an adult entertainer aiming to wow dinner guests with plated desserts, Gelato Messina: The Recipes delivers restaurant-grade results and the confidence to experiment—one silky scoop at a time.
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