(Oops! We made a mistake, our classes in San Francisco and Walnut Creek are on the 9th and 10th, respectively, not the 8th and 9th. Sorry! )

Last night I saw David Lebovitz teach at Sur La Table in part to promote his newest book The Perfect Scoop. He was very entertaining and it was fun to hear him speak about our favorite topic, gelato, as well as ice cream and accoutrements. We were introduced early on, so part way through he threw down the gauntlet and challenged Naia to come up with a flat-leaf parsley gelato when he was making his parsley ice cream! His parsley ice cream was excellent… it may not be parsley, but expect a few David-inspired flavors in the upcoming months.

Speaking of Sur La Table, I was there also to check out the class since we are holding our own classes in August. A lot of you have asked us for tips on making gelato and it’s great to finally be able to offer a formal class for you! We will hold the class in each of our cities:

• August 2nd in Berkeley at Kitchen on Fire
• August 9th in San Francisco at Sur La Table
• August 10th in Walnut Creek at Viking Homechef

Have any questions? You can contact us at classes@gelaterianaia.com. Hope to see you there!

Last weekend Trevor and I were featured on KGO AM 810 Newstalk’s Dining Around with Gene Burns! It was fun to be on the Bay Area’s top radio show for dining, and the KGO AM 810 crew and Gene himself were gracious hosts (even though my microphone was turned off at the beginning.)

We were asked to be on the show in part because Gene was hosting the show at the 26th annual Walnut Creek Art & Wine Festival at Heather Farms Park, and our Naia Walnut Creek just finished celebrating its second anniversary! From our end we came up with a Cantucci e Vin Santo gelato flavor for the week, taking fresh biscotti cookies (baked the same day), dipping them in Vin Santo and folding them into our creamy gelato.

Mike Billigmeier and his family own B & B Ranch in Linden, CA, just outside of Stockton. Linden is covered in orchards and produce of all kinds are grown there.

B & B Ranch is a family run operation. There is no CEO, just Dad. No fancy logos. They don’t even have a website! This is where real food comes from and it is where we picked up our Bing cherries.

At B & B the decision of when to pick was made the old fashioned way, by walking through the orchard every day or two and eating the cherries right off of the trees. Mike called me on the day they would be doing most of the picking. That was on a Thursday and on Friday our Bing Cherry Sorbetto was in our stores. Does it get any better than that?

Mike likes what we do so he gave us a couple of cases of Rainier cherries as a gift. Those went into making our Flavor of the Week this week.

If you want to taste the most heavenly sorbetto we have made yet, come to our stores now, and hurry. If you want to enjoy what B & B Ranch has to offer head to the Pleasanton Farmers Market. You too may make a sale the old fashioned way with a hand-written receipt and a firm handshake.