Canada's insider blog

They may not have come home with a medal, but their creations were still deemed to be positively delizioso.

Team Canada, led by Vancouver gelato maker James Coleridge, competed against some of the best gelato makers in the world at the 2012 World Cup of Gelato in late January.

And proved – once again – that you don’t need to be Italian to make great gelato.

Coleridge – who opened Bella Gelateria after tasting gelato on his honeymoon in Venice – makes gelato the old fashioned way, from scratch, something he learned from the masters when he studied at Carpigiani Gelato University in Italy.

He sources local ingredients whenever possible, beginning with organic whole milk. “I’m a custodian of an old world process,” he says simply. “We cut it by hand, we squeeze it by hand,” referring to the fruit he incorporates.

It takes almost twice as long as ‘industrial’ gelato, but James’ result is soft, creamy and intensely flavoured with names that will make you think you’re in the old country, such as Pistachio Siciliano, Dolce de Leche and Chocolate Fondent.

For the Gelato World Cup competition, each team had to prepare gelato in five different ways – in a cup, cone, cake and pan, as well as incorporating it into a savoury dish.

But thankfully, you don’t have to go all the way to Italy to get great gelato, just to Vancouver.