Matteo Casone

Matteo Casone, was born in Bologna not to a family of gelato makers. In fact, he only thought of becoming a gelatiere as an adult, though he had always been passionate about ice creams: «Professionally, I had taken a different road, but there was always a curiosity, an attraction for gelato. Then with my business partner we decided to move to Australia. We started to think what we could bring from Bologna and Italy to Brisbane, where we were headed. And we enrolled in a course for gelatieri, and discovered we were rather talented».

With the goal of bringing Italian gelato to Brisbane, Casone ends this course, then acquires experience in a historic establishment in Bologna: when they felt they were ready for the big leap, the two left Italy to conquer Brisbane with a gelato machine. «We were well-prepared. Our idea was to make Italian gelato only using Australian products. Success arrived fast, and we soon opened four shops in different areas in Brisbane». After three years and a half, an unexpected event: Casone's visa is not renewed, and he must leave Australia. Back in Europe, he starts to work as consultant in some gelato-making projects, and as trainer: he travels, teaches, in Canada, the United States, Argentina... until that disaster called Covid comes. Which stops his travels and leaves him temporarily without a job.

This until a company with whom he has worked calls him and says that there's this man called Alain Ducasse who's looking for an ice cream maker for a new project. The day of the interview, in Bologna, Casone is at work. He's delivering pizzas. They call him at the last moment: «I had just made a delivery and they told me to come and meet Ducasse. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The chef said he had already met 15 more people. But apparently the interview went well because they asked me to go to Paris to do some further tests».

It's on this occasion that, having arrived in Paris, Casone pulls out of the cylinder the gelato that has Ducasse say: «You're the right person». He arrives in the lab, starts to experiment with some flavours, asks the chef to taste a sorbet of grapefruit and vermouth and conquers his trust. «The first rule that Ducasse asked us to follow was to focus on one word alone: aspérité. Asperity. For instance, in the grapefruit sorbet that Ducasse liked so much, the vermouth is added with a texture of granita. A detail like this can often be considered a technical mistake: but if properly prepared, that texture is not a mistake, but something that will make that gelato memorable for ever».

One year later Manufacture de Glace Alain Ducasse in Rue de la Roquette 38 is very successful: «For now we cannot reveal our next steps, but we're ready to have some new projects grow. There's still so much to do and we have plenty of enthusiasm». And we support the Italian maestro ice cream maker of Alain Ducasse.