Since 2019, Melbourne
It started in Tuscany, in 2008
I was leading American tour groups through Tuscany, and one of the stops was a gelateria run by a world champion. Watching those visitors taste real gelato for the first time — and seeing the difference between that and what most people think gelato is — set off something I could not put down.
So I went and studied it. Not the recipes: the science underneath them. The chemistry, the physics, the formulation. How a product served at fifteen degrees below zero can still be soft enough to fold onto a spoon. That is not luck and it is not a trade secret — it is balance, and it can be learned, with a lot of time, if you want to do it right.
Why there is no shop
In 2019 I brought that work to Australia and founded Naturalis Gelato Italiano. The decision people ask about most is the one I am proudest of: no storefront.
A shop means gelato made in advance and held in a display case. A cart means gelato made for your date, carefully crafted in our own lab, and served the same day. It is a harder way to run a business and a better way to eat gelato — which is the whole point.
The beginning was extremely hard, and I did not want to give up. In 2020 Melbourne was hit by the pandemic: shops closed and events stopped altogether. So I started my own night gelato delivery, four flavours, running until five in the morning — my way of staying with a city in lockdown.
Today we are a leader in Victoria in gourmet gelato catering, with a range of flexible formats that take our gelato into every corner of the state.
What we actually make
One hundred per cent natural. Real fruit, real nuts, real milk, and nothing that exists to make a cheap ingredient behave like an expensive one. Every recipe is adjusted for the event it is going to: a wedding in February is not a school incursion in July, and the gelato should not pretend otherwise.
We have served weddings, private celebrations, corporate events, concerts, major sporting events and events organised by the City of Melbourne. The scale changes; the way we make it does not.
The recognitions
Three of them are awards and one is a legal requirement, and we list all four for the same reason: each one can be checked.
- Ambassador of Italian gelato in Australia — conferred in September 2022 by Gelato World Champion Eugenio Morrone.
- Five Stars for artisanal quality — Italian Federation of Gelato Makers, December 2020.
- Best Small Business 2020–21 — Monash Business Awards, November 2021.
- Working with Children Check — required by law to work with children in Victoria, and held, because we go into schools.
Who you get
Me, and my professional staff through the high season. There is no account manager between you and the person making the gelato. If you write to us or call 0435 370 522, you get the person who will be standing behind the cart at your event.
— Maurizio Manzi, founder