One Night Twelve Kitchens

Here is a lovely lady enjoying a mini Tartufo at Madisono's table.

Here is Jean Robert deCavel and team prepping his dish.

Madisono's was pleased to participate in the sold out One Night Twelve Kitchens fundraiser this past Sunday, April 21, 2013. One Night Twelve Kitchens is the largest fundraiser for student scholarships at Midwest Culinary Institute. This is our third year joining in with more than 20 of Cincinnati's top restaurants that treats guests to an incredible dinner along with tours of the 12 test kitchens at the Midwest Culinary Institute, to watch their dinner being prepared.

We offered a miniature version of our newest frozen creation, the Madisono's Tartufo. What is a Tartufo, you ask? Our tartufos are Madisono's gelato, covered with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and a chocolate ganache center. We've been working on these for some time, and I would not be lying to say that we are super excited to get these into your hands. They are delicious!

The typical Madisono's Tartufo is about the size of a cupcake, but since we thought it unfair to tempt guests into filling up before dinner, these are a miniature version. Here are a few pictures showing the process.

Those are frozen balls of caramello gelato, getting ready to be dressed in chocolate. *Hand modeling by Noah.

Here are the finished tartufos, with chocolate and brûléed (note correct accents!) sugar.

For several years I have been exploring the various malted beverage drinks offered by many different companies through out the world.  Jungle Jim's is a great source for these drinks and so are small ethnic markets.  These drinks are basically the wort used in making beer without the fermentation process.  In Germany it is often referred to as Kinderbier or Malzbier.  You might have seen the Goya Malta or India Malta, have you ever tried them?  I have to say that you either like it or you don't.  Remember the first time you tried Guiness?  
      This Spring we have introduced a new flavor to the line up and it is called Vanilla Malt.  My first step was to visit Cincinnati's premier beer supply shop, Listermann Brewing Company.  When you open the door your nose is treated to one of the most beautiful sweet aromas of yeast, malt and home brew.  There is a tasting station in the front room and around the corner there is a room filled with everything you need to make great beer and wine.  I used to home brew back in the day and seeing all of the hardware took me back to the good ole days of exploding bottles and strong beer that most everyone thought was crap.  We started off with a selection of different malt extracts and went back to the shop to begin the science.  We ran a few batches and I have to admit that we were all very pleased with each one.  There is a deep malt profile to the finished gelato that we had never tasted before.  Powdered malt will never achieve the complex flavors from the real stuff.  The extract is so thick it is hard to pour.  Imagine cold molasses.  We settled on a combination of the extracts for our recipe (sorry it's a secret) and began producing them into pints.  We are using our Madagascar vanilla gelato base which is made from scratch, with whole vanilla beans and a vat pasteurizer.  We process in ten quart batches each time for the ultimate small batch taste.   Vanilla Malt is available at the following stores.
Remke Bigg's Hyde Park
Carl's Deli Hyde Park
Ferrari's Little Italy  Madeira
Madison's Findlay Market
McCracken Market Miami University
Wyoming Meats
Luigi's Old World Market Mason
Keegan's Seafood Anderson
Jungle Jim's Eastgate

Mayberry and Madisono's Gelato!

Madisono's is always so happy to be a part of Cincinnati's great restaurants. Mayberry is one of our newest accounts located among the urban architecture at 1211 Main Street downtown. It's got a super relaxed atmosphere with high beautiful dark wooden beams mixed into the urban interior. We had the cobb salad, which adheres to our family's credo that everything tastes better with a fried egg on it. True, true! The fish tacos were also excellent with the fresh tomato and topped with spicy chile lime crema. But of course, you are reading this because you like dessert, right? Then save room for the pudding with apple caramel sauce and Madisono's Madagascar Vanilla gelato. And get your dining friend to try the mulled wine poached pear rolled in gingerbread with some Madisono's Cinnamon Gelato.

Madisono's Candy Cane Gelato

Madisono's Candy Cane Gelato his is a crowd pleasing flavor for the holiday season. We start with our classic madagascar vanilla gelato base and add candy canes to give the peppermint flavor profile. We use the hand pulled red and white candy canes from Minges Wholesale Candy, located right here in Cincinnati. We prefer the hand-pulled canes to the machine manufactured ones because the airiness of the candy gives a nice crispy crunch to the texture.

Want to try a scoop with a nice cup of hot chocolate? Or add it to the side of a rich, dark chocolate cake for a festive and easy dessert.

Nothing's fishy about the success of Anchor OTR

One of the newest additions to the developing over the rhine quarter district, Anchor OTR is a hip seafood restaurant at 1401 Race Street. The restaurant opened with such an overwhelming success that they actually ran out of food! Now that's saying something.

I was excited to see what the buzz was about so I visited on a Saturday night with my wife. They do not take reservations so we went early (also because we consider ourselves to be old and must return before the hipster kids take over and make us feel even older). The exterior and interior walls are textured and colored with burnt cedar facings, the space has an orderly and comfortable feel with brown paper insets and oyster crackers on the tables. Their belief that "uncomplicated is better" is felt as well as seen. The service was excellent and the menu was full of delicious choices. We eventually resolved to try the cockles and hush puppies for appetizers, then had the calamari and lemon salad to share. Our main courses were divine; my wife had the scallops and risotto and I had the X. The only difficulty was choosing between the ice cream sundae or the seasonal crisp for dessert. Both included our Madisono's Madagascar Vanilla Gelato, so we were stumped. In the end, the blueberry crisp won out and we were in homebaked heaven.

Donna's Gourmet Cookies loves a little Madisono's too!

We have been enjoying Donna's Gourmet Cookies for years and now. Seriously, every cookie is a dense, chewy sweet delight that is a meal in itself. Of course they are made from scratch and with all natural ingredients. That's why they're so darn good!

Donna is now selling our Madisono's Gelato and Sorbet in her retail location at 10796 Montgomery Road in Montgomery, so when you pick up your order (call 513-489-9600 or order online here) you can also grab a pint and send yourself to sweet heaven. Donna also ships her cookies so you can share with your friends who can't make the trip to Cincinnati.

Check out our new restaurant partners!

We've updated our list of restaurants that serve Madisono's Gelato and Sorbet and are honored to add the following eateries to our roster. We like to say that they all have really good taste, and for that we are grateful.

Anchor OTR, Cincinnati, OH
Bronte Bistro in Joseph Beth Bookstore, Hyde Park
Cafe De Wheels, Cincinnati Food Truck
Half Day Cafe, Wyoming, OH
Mayberry, Cincinnati, OH
Coles 735, Lexington
Rue de Maine, Dayton

And those are just the new additions to our list. Find all the restaurants that offer our products right here. It might make the "Where are we going to eat?" question that much easier to answer.