Great Gelato Poster

I just stumbled upon this poster for the Brooklyn Larder, an artesianal foodie shop in Brooklyn, New York (of course!) What a great image for one of our favorite food groups. :oP

There are some other really clever ones, including one with salami that might make a nice gift for my brother-in-law. See what I mean?

CSO Opening Night Gala

Madisono's Gelato and Sorbet is very proud to be partnering with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Opera this year!

Bella Notte, the Opening Night Gala was absolutely beautiful with Pucci inspired linens and colors of bright pink, green and yellow. Of course, the best treat of all was the absolutely stellar performance of the people's diva Renee Fleming. This was her much anticipated Cincinnati debut and she certainly did not disappoint!

After the performance, the Music Hall Ballroom was transformed into an Italian piazza by the ever talented Joe Rigotti. Guests finished the evening with coffee, sweets and some Madisono's Dark Chocolate Orange and Caramello Gelato as well as Lemon Basil sorbet. We served it out of our new mobile cart, which is available for future events and fundraisers. Bravo!

Beautiful centerpieces which included lemons and orchids

Dishing out the other Italian treat for the evening

The Vespa scooters added to the Italian ambience, but I can't believe I didn't get a photo of the yellow Ferrari!

The amazing Renee Fleming!

Zoofari 2012

Wow! We've had a great week of Galas. Last Saturday was the zoo's top fundraising event Zoofari. The event takes guests through the zoo, stopping for appetizers, wine and live animals presented by zoo keepers along the way. The final destination is the tented area transformed into an Indian adventure, brought to life in a huge tent splashed with magenta, red and purple lighting, rich red tables topped with oversized cut metal lanterns, Bollywood style dancing and more.

Dinner is served 'by the bite' at the various food stations, each catered by a Cincinnati restaurant. Dinner of course finishes with desserts prepared by some of the best restaurants, bakeries and confectioners in Cincinnati. Madisono's Gelato and Sorbet was pleased to be offering our custom flavor for the evening: Cardamom Kulfi (Indian style ice cream) with Alphonso mango puree. The greatest compliments came from folks who were from India...it's difficult to impress someone who knows what true Indian flavors are, so we were very humbled to know we'd hit the mark.

This was an incredible 10+ foot sculpture created by 7 Hills School

Cookies from Queen City Cookie

Pawpaw sorbet, Bouquet Restaurant and Findlay Market

Bouquet Restaurant created this 4 grain salad and topped it with Madisono's Pawpaw Sorbet

 Last night we were so happy to participate in the Eat Local for The Globe fundraising event at Findlay Market. Excellent local food creations were presented to ticket holders in two ways: buy a 7 course meal created and cooked by local chefs OR choose to graze along the food tents where more restaurants and chefs prepared portions of delicious food for guests. We have a special place in our hearts for Findlay Market as it was the first place where I started selling my products (then it was our farm produce and specialty mushrooms) in a pop-up tent on Elder Street. The changes we've seen over the past 12 years have been astounding and we believe Findlay Market is the pulse of the local food community.

Madisono's Gelato was paired with Bouquet Restaurant on Main Street in Covington, KY and we were located right in front of Madison's Market on Elder Street (that pop-up tent has changed a little to a full produce and specialty food shop run by Bryan and Carolyn Madison). Chef Stephen Williams created the most amazing 4 grain salad which included quinoa, flax seed, hemp seed and buckwheat. He added dragon beans, tomatoes, watermelon and blended those ingredients with a honey citrus dressing. The ingredients were sourced locally and donated by Madison's Market. Madisono's created a Pawpaw sorbet which topped the salad. "Pawpaw sorbet?" you say? "What't that?" We'll tell you about this local specialty next week.

It never ceases to amaze me what talented chefs like Stephen can create. We are very lucky indeed!

The 7 course meal was served at long tables in and near the Farmer's Market Shed

The grazing event was along the perimiter of the Findlay Market House