There's a gelato university in Italy where you can learn how to make ice cream — here's what it's like to go there
A class of gelato students poses with their creation in 2016. Photo courtesy of Carpigiani Gelato University
- At the Carpigiani Gelato University near Bologna, Italy you can take a 4-week course to become a "Master Gelatiere."
- Gelato students from all over the world study in classrooms, get first-hand crafting experience, and learn how to open and operate their own gelato shop.
- We spoke with Samuel Kelerstein, who opened his own gelateria in Florida less than two years after he graduated from Carpigiani's classrooms.
Forget liberal arts college: We want to go to ice cream university. The tiny municipality of Anzola dell'Emilia in Bologna, Italy, is home to Carpigiani Gelato University, where — after a four-week intensive training program — you can become a gelato master.
From learning the difference between ice cream and gelato in the university classroom (more milk and less cream) to getting first-hand experience making fluffy mounds of Nutella, pistachio, and stracciatella (plain milk flavor with chocolate shavings) gelato, students leave the university with a "Master Gelatiere" certificate. Many alums even open their own gelato shops.
Carpigiani Gelato University was founded in 2003 as an "educational arm" of Carpigiani: an Italian company best-known for making gelato machines for restaurants and gelaterias. In 2013, the university launched its first four-week training program called "Become a Gelatiere," which includes three weeks of training with a one-week internship at a gelato shop in Italy.
INSIDER had the chance to speak with Samuel Kelerstein, who attended the Gelato University in 2014 and opened his own gelato shop called Glyk Gelato in Parkland, Florida 18 months after graduation, and Kaori Ito, Director of the Carpigiani Gelato University.