Starting Up: How we achieved ice cream dream

We opened Iscream, the coolest (and only) gelateria in the Covered Market last week on the hottest day of the year so far – but the story started 10 years ago on a family holiday in Italy when I had that big epiphany.

We were in a beautiful village in Tuscany and, because I had a broken leg, I couldn’t do a lot. Every day, my teenage son pushed my wheelchair to the gelateria – where each flavour was better than the one before. I couldn’t get over how much the gelateria was part of the village way of life. People would even pop in late at night in on their way back from the bars – no kebab vans here!

I decided there and then that, one day, I would open a gelateria. Of course, the holiday ended and I went back to my long-established career in property with these dreams stowed away with the old suitcases.

In 2014, suddenly all the dice all fell the right way at the right time. Jen and I left our jobs and made the giant leap of faith. We were going to open our own gelateria.

First, we needed to do some research. So, we enthusiastically threw ourselves into tasting trips all over London, the South East and on holidays. We couldn’t pass an ice cream parlour without stopping in. I’d say we ate more ice cream and gelati in that six months than most people will do in a lifetime. Mercifully, we both run and are very fit, so we didn’t end up spherical.

We very quickly decided that our gelateria was going to be authentically Italian with fresh, organic produce from local suppliers and producing minimum waste. First things first though. We needed equipment. So, we flew over to Italy and looked at a few options before deciding on Carpigiani – “the Ferraris of gelato making”. Their gelato guru also trained us.

We plumped on Bonners for all our fruit as they are only about 30 paces away in the Covered Market. All our cream and milk is delivered daily from third-generation dairy farmer Nick Gosling whose organic Guernsey herd graze in wild flower meadows and the greenest grass in the dew-filled valleys of Wiltshire. Nick and Christine have spent many hours learning all about cow psychology and treating cow illnesses homoeopathically. The cows are all named, treated individually and the love shows in the richness of their milk.

We decided to serve more than gelati, sorbettis and frozen yoghurt so, once the temperature drops a bit, we will be serving luscious hot chocolate, tea and the best coffee I have ever tasted. We found James Gourmet Coffee in Ross on Wye. This innovative artisan coffee roaster supplies us with a special single estate Guatemalan coffee that is bought direct from the farmer, Santos Martin. Santos and Peter James have a direct and collaborative relationship and the coffee it produces is an absolute taste sensation.

Finally, we also stock the best chocolate and hand-made Belgian truffle selection in Oxford (in our opinion). We were helped in this by none other than Chocology’s John Partington. We are both chocoholics so we knew what we wanted, but he helped us to keep the selection personal, yet with a wide appeal.

And so, here we are in the Covered Market with suppliers who share our inherent ethical standards and dedication to perfection making and serving gelati, sorbetti and frozen yoghurt made fresh everyday. I am not saying that one taste of authentic Italian gelato will change your life as ours has, but you won’t know unless you try.

Iscream
113 & 114 Covered Market, Oxford OX1 3DZ 
iscreamoxford.co.uk