Stephanie Reitano of Capogiro Gelato

interview by Jamie Png
photo by Olivia Coffey

With cold weather approaching, many are turning to warm baked goods and hot chocolate for their sweet fixes. However, Stephanie Reitano, co-owner and chef at Capogiro Gelato Artisans, argues that icy treats are a comfort food appropriate for any season. Penn Appétit spoke with Ms. Reitano about her store’s winter offerings, how she comes up with unconventional gelato flavors, and plans for her soon-to-be-opening gelateria on 39th and Walnut.

Does the winter weather affect how much and what you make?

Absolutely. We are acutely aware of the weather—we keep track of the temperature every day. But we actually love the winter months because the fruit that comes in is very interest ing. You get these amazing Seville sour oranges, Honeybell tangerines, Meyer lemons…I love citrus. It’s my favorite, so we do a ton of different citrus flavors, and in the fall we do the apples and pears.

You’re opening a store at Penn in the spring, which we’re all excited about…

Good, good! It’s going to be much larger, probably twice the size of the 13th Street store. We’re going to have a yogurt bar, a full coffee menu, hot oatmeal, thick-cut toast, Italian rustic soups, and Italian sandwiches: panini, crostini, and tramezzini. And we’ll always have vegetarian options. We’re going to have a very limited liquor license: gelato cocktails, aperitifs, diges tivi. And we’ll serve little things with the cocktails—we’re going to make our own olive oil potato chips. It’s not going to be a shot and a beer place, we want to encourage people to sit and unwind. A European-style place where students and pro fessors can come and just have a cocktail.

You’re very committed to using seasonal, locally-grown produce and supporting sustainable farming, so if you expand to different regions would you use local food there?

I feel that you need to use the best products available, and if it happens to be local, that’s great. I’ve yet to have some thing imported that tastes better than something that’s local. We do want to expand outside of Philadelphia, but we’ll pick our places carefully. I can’t open in places that don’t have a farming community nearby. If you have a connection to the person you’re buying the products from and a connec tion to the people you’re selling to, then I believe that’s the most important. And the perk of staying seasonal is you look forward to the changes of the seasons. As much as you love raspberries, it’s really nice when raspberries go away and apples come in.

All your flavors are so creamy and dense – even the sorbetti! Is that because of the ingredients you use, or is there a particular regional variation you’re emu lating that’s more unusual?

The regional style that I chose to do here is the Veneto style, because the Veneto region is just about the same climate and farming community as PA, and I can get the same ingredi ents. The Veneto style is mostly milk, a tiny bit of cream, and sometimes egg yolks. The egg yolks are only used in choco lates, and the occasional cheese or caramel flavors, like our burnt sugar. The reason it tastes creamy is because gelato is served warmer than ice cream, and there’s very little fat. And our sobetti is fat free. There’s very little air pumped into the gelato, so it’s very dense. When you eat the gelato it immedi ately melts, and you’re actually tasting the nuts, the milk, the sugar, all of the ingredients.

Where did you learn to make gelato?

I trained in Italy, a week here, a week there, spread out over a year. Different manufacturers of gelato-making equipment will hold classes. And with any Italian gelato-maker who was in the US—anyone [who] said they were teaching a gelato class, I showed up. We opened in December 2002, and it was probably 11 degrees out that first day! I had from December until May to figure it out. And gelato is chemistry. I would try something out and put it in the case, and it would turn to soup. Then I would get my calculator out and I’d start readjusting the pro portions to make sure every single flavor in that case had the same sugar ratio.

Do you still make all the gelato yourself?

I still make all the ingredients that go in the gelato, though I’m not physically pouring it into the machine and pulling it out, which I did for the first three years. Now it’s just me and Dan, who works with me, and we make all the bases. Yesterday I roasted 20 pounds of pecans for Pecan gelato, I made pecan pra line…I make the dulce de leche, the chocolate bases, everything.

How do you generate your flavor ideas?

There are certain culinary rules for things that always go well together. But I get ideas from everywhere: desserts, fun cock tails, even candy. And people suggest things all the time. We had a flavor suggestion contest last March, and the winner was baked sweet potato and pineapple. I can’t wait to taste it. We’re getting our first batch of sweet potatoes…today, actually!