Cold, creamy confections are favorite year-round treats in the UAE, and there are many kinds to choose from. But for those who want a luxuriously sweet dessert or snack to cool them down on a sweltering day, nothing can beat gelato. Not only is it creamier than your regular ice cream, but it’s also denser. Plus, quite often, there are more custom flavors to excite the palate.
This is why if you’re thinking of a business that can thrive well in the country’s ever-flourishing food scene, you simply can’t go wrong with selling gelato. You have all the variables going for you:
- First, it’s hot in the UAE for the majority of the year, so there will always be people looking for something cool to eat.
- Second, selling gelato does not always entail a high startup cost. You can sell it from a stand, or even online. Overall, it’s quite an affordable business venture because you can launch it straight from your own kitchen.
- Lastly, gelato is a classic product, but it’s also trendy because there are so many ways to get creative with it. You can look forward to decades of selling it and seeing different generations of patrons if you can make amazing-tasting gelato.
Master the Art of Gelato-Making
Of course, making delicious gelato that people will love requires proper education. It’s not enough that you have the best equipment and tools for the job; you need to learn the art of churning out flavors that are unique and will keep customers coming back for more. Fortunately, there’s an artisan gelato making class you can sign up for in Dubai.
In this class, you will learn all the fundamentals of the trade, from its history to its practical and theoretical concepts. But that’s not all; the course also focuses on the science behind balanced tastes, which will allow you to create a vast range of flavors.
You will learn the traditional way of creating the universal favorite flavor, vanilla bean, but you’ll also learn to make custom coffee flavors as well as gourmet options that have delicious bits of everything — fresh fruits, herbs, liqueur, chocolates, nuts, and even cake.
One cannot emphasize enough how beneficial this course is if you want your future gelato business to be a hit among the public.
Take Things Up a Notch
When it comes to taking a fully creative route in making gelato, you can take additional classes to help you produce your own high-quality ingredients. Most of the time, for custom and gourmet flavors, it’s not enough to just have access to the best quality ingredients. You need to prepare them the right way, too.
For instance, if you are keen on experimenting with cake flavors for your gelato, naturally, it would be beneficial to learn how to bake the most flavorful cake, too. Or, if you want to spike your gelato with wine and other spirits, you need to understand how these beverages can beautifully interact with certain ingredients.
Additionally, presentation is a must in elevating the gelato experience (and the brand you will be building). One vital lesson when selling food is to appeal to customers visually because, as many chefs always say, people eat with their eyes first. So, it helps to learn how to turn a scoop of gelato into an eye-pleasing situation.
Suffice it to say, knowing how to make great-tasting, top-quality gelato is not just about knowing gelato itself; it expands to other knowledge as well. For this, you can join professional cookery courses online, wine-pairing classes, food decorating classes, and others.
Learn Gelato-Selling Principles
Now that you know the principles behind delicious flavors and the value of eye-catching presentation, your gelato business can only fly if you can cover the business aspect as well. Here are the crucial lessons to prepare for.
Money Matters
Making sure that your gelato is the best also requires business acumen. Brace yourself for the challenges of costing and accounting. The price of ingredients (especially exotic ones) can change drastically based on availability. Equipment and tools for gelato-making are also not cheap. Plus, maintenance of production quarters also comes with a hefty cost.
It would be best if you learned how to appropriately account for all of these before you even start producing and pricing your gelato.
Management and Product Quality
Delegating tasks may become a problem as well, particularly if you’re a stickler for quality and you want things done the way only you would. For a lot of gelato makers, micro-management of operations is one of the leading reasons why the business fails to expand quickly.
Being a stickler for quality and doing everything yourself can prevent you from being as productive as possible. Most of the time, public reception is good, but you can find it quite difficult to meet the demand for your products as their popularity grows.
Further Development
It’s also helpful to learn how to use customer feedback for improvement. Do not just be a gelato maker; be a complete product and service provider. Make customer feedback a prompt for everything, from better packaging to new flavors and added business opportunities.
Many gelato makers say that they are able to keep up with trends or even dictate the trends because of the unique suggestions of their customers. Besides that, their customers also play a key role in extra income-generating activities for them, such as catering to weddings, school events, community fairs, and so much more. From these events, they get to adjust their menu, offer exclusive and limited products, and gain a more dynamic understanding of their market.
All those being said, if you are seriously committed to joining the frozen treat scene, it’s best to arm yourself with adequate business know-how to ensure the profitability of your gelato.
Make the Frozen Treat Venture a Continuous Learning Process
In all food businesses, learning should be a commitment. With a learner’s mindset, you can be sure to have all the skills to continuously produce something that people will want and love. But along with this, it will give you the confidence to take risks.
It’s important to mention as well that continuous learning will grow your love for gelato. You’ll discover more about it over time and realize its new possibilities that will push the business forward.
AUTHOR BIO
Shanaaz Raja is the Course Director at International Centre for Culinary Arts – ICCA Dubai.