The famous Bulgarian rose - a touch of seductive scent in a French perfume, has recently started to tempt the palate, as an enterprising Italian used it to create one of the most popular ice creams in Rome.

Some people call Rosario Nicodemo "l’Einstein del mondo del gelato" for his creativity. The young master gelato maker, however, does not invent complicated mathematical formulas, but creates pleasure for the palate, melting in one’s mouth. And he has been so successful that experts in the industry proclaimed him the best gelato maker of 2018. But one of the secrets of his success lies in a charming Bulgarian scent that won him not only the recognition of people but also a special prize at the most prestigious forum in the ice-cream world - Gelato Festival in Rome.

One day, Rosario, pursuing his dream of creating the perfect ice cream, decided to use rose petals, as the name of the fragrant flower  is also encoded in his own name. And since the Bulgarian rose is known all over the world, he turned to the only Bulgarian he knew - his colleague confectioner.

“Rosario came to the confectionery store and explained to me that he wanted to make ice cream from roses,” Kostadin Georgievski, who works in one of Rome's most popular confectionary shops, says. “I know that the Bulgarian rose is the best in the world and I offered him to use it. I ordered from Bulgaria some jars with rose jelly; he tried it and produced excellent ice cream with raspberries and Bulgarian rose. The ice cream was presented at the Gelato Festival in Rome and it was very popular but, unfortunately, ended in second place after gelato with peanuts and Hawaiian red salt won.”

Because of the specific aroma of the rose, the master gelato maker decided to use raspberries, too, thus combining two plants of the rose family. The result turned out to be a fresh, but not too sweet ice cream, as it has no added sugar.

For the first time, Rosario Nicodemo entered the ice-cream “lab” 10 years ago - but not as an apprentice but to deliver milk. Later, he found himself in the workshop of his son-in-law, Eugenio Morrone, European Ice Cream Champion for 2016. At first he felt like Alice in Wonderland, surrounded by stunning, yet frightening things, but soon he became a leading figure and trend setter in the gelato industry.

“I love to experiment with special tastes, to which I added the Bulgarian rose,” "Lately I have been using a lot of lavender, hawthorn and other plant species. In addition to classic tastes, we also offer some stranger ones like lemon with basil, lime and lavender, watermelon, ginger and pear, cinnamon. I've even made ice cream with buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil and basil, cheese and pepper. The gelato with raspberries and roses, however, is always sought after and if I missed to put it on the shop window, clients ask me about it.”

Unlike traditional ice cream, gelato is a craft product with fresh products that is consumed at the moment.

“Gelato does not make people fat. We offer two new flavors that we define as ice cream of the future, as there is no added sugar. One is milk-based and only uses sugar contained in lactose and the other is chocolate one, and in this case sugar is only contained in chocolate and lactose. This way the total sugar percentage in them is 3 per cent, while in other types of ice cream it reaches 18 per cent.”

Even with fresh milk, chocolate or fruit, ice cream would not be delicious if you do not put the secret ingredient in it. If one is not happy while making ice cream, nothing will come out, the master gelatier says.

English: Alexander Markov