If you love the sorbetto served at Gemelli Gelato Artisanal Dessert Cafe, you should definitely check out their Fig Sorbetto for one night only tonight from 6:30 to 9:30pm. Co-hosted by the West Chester Food Co-op, it’s a party you won’t want to miss. I spoke with Vincenzo Tettamanti this afternoon about the sorbetto’s conceptualization.
“A few weeks ago for one of the last Swingin’ Summer Thursdays, we had gelato in the West Chester Food Co-op booth,” Vincenzo explained. “They mentioned to me that one of their owners, [Suzanne Adams, chair of the Food Co-op’s Board of Directors] had a fig tree. And when I spoke with her, she said, ‘Why don’t we do something together to bring awareness to the fact that we’re opening a new Co-op in town?'”
So Vincenzo and Suzanne agreed to collaborate, and she brought him all of her figs so he could create a delicious, limited-time only sorbetto. He explained what makes sorbetto so different from gelato.
“The sorbetto is a complicated recipe, but ingredient-wise, it’s super simple — fresh fruit, sugar, and water,” Vincenzo stated. “It’s vegan, gluten-free, and meant 
to enhance the flavor of the fruit. In all the sorbetto that we have, we do have 50% or more fresh fruit. For somebody who likes fruits and frozen treats, sorbetto is just the best you can find.”
It can be challenging find the perfect balance between all of these ingredients. Vincenzo explained that since sorbettos are made with a lot more water than gelato, you really need to correctly calculate how much of the sugar and fruit juice you will add, so the end result isn’t a watery mess. With gelato, it can sometimes be easier to create because, though it has more ingredients, they are more solid, so it’s a simpler culinary task.
Despite this, Vincenzo loves creating the sorbettos and has partnered with Jaco Juice and Taco Bar to create flavors like the Pineapple Express from one of their juices. The collaboration with other businesses is really one of the best parts of the job.
“It’s cool that we can collaborate with people on a local basis. We stand with what the Co-op stands for —bringing accessible, locally-grown fruits and ingredients that you can work and cook with. So they’re seasonal and nutritious. I really want to work more with them so we can bring more organic, sustainable produce to town.”
