A top gelato maker from Florence launches flavours dedicated to women who made history

Nothing is left to chance. “For the flavour inspired by the Mona Lisa, I started from ingredients that could be found during the era in which she lived, namely milk and eggs, sweetened with honey, scented with orange blossom water (a tribute to the Medici greenhouses), with a purée of cooked mele campanine (a local apple), with a swirl of sultanas soaked in vinsanto and pieces of Tuscan walnuts,” explains Cinzia Otri, who has been working on the project for years—the Mona Lisa flavour dates back to 2013—but now wants to systematise and turn it into a book with the gelato recipes and biographies of 14 women who made history.

Who is Cinzia Otri of Gelateria della Passera

A would-be chef with a professional past in a completely different field, Cinzia Otri became a gelato maker “by accident” fifteen years ago, turning what was initially meant to be a restaurant into one of the best artisanal gelato labs in Italy. Not by chance, it has been awarded Tre Coni—the highest recognition—in the Gelaterie d’Italia guide. Research, study, and the creation of ever-new pairings characterise her exciting journey, which materialises in the flavours available at Gelateria della Passera in Florence, a refined spot in the Oltrarno district where, for the past decade, you can also find gelatos dedicated to women who made history. “It all began almost by chance in 2013, when Gelateria della Passera took part in an initiative celebrating Lisa Gherardini’s birthday, and that Mona Lisa-inspired flavour quickly became a signature of my shop.”

Gelato dedicated to Mona Lisa

Some flavours dedicated to women who made history

Since then, flavours have followed one after another: dedicated to the Persian princess Scheherazade (a milk-based gelato with saffron and pistachios, scented with rose, and dotted with frozen mascarpone inserts); to Bianca Cappello (a fiordilatte scented with “spigo,” Tuscan lavender, with cocoa nib shards); to Leonora of Toledo, wife of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and a symbol of female empowerment in the Renaissance. Last year was dedicated to Ondina Valla from Bologna, the first Italian athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympics: “For Valla, I developed a flavour based on almond milk, flavoured with fresh raspberries from Abetone and a rose elixir from the Officina Santa Maria Novella.” Now, Cinzia Otri wants to make the project more structured, eventually collecting the biographies of 14 women—each paired with a flavour and a full recipe—in a book.

Gelato dedicated to Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici

The flavour of the month and what's to come

The flavour currently on offer at Gelateria della Passera is dedicated to Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the last descendant of the grand ducal dynasty, to whom we owe the preservation of Florence’s vast cultural heritage, which otherwise would have left the city: “For the flavour tribute to the Electress Palatine, who lived many years in Austria, I had to do a bit of research, ending up with a Portuguese milk-based gelato with candied mele annurche (a variety of apple) and spiced wines,” she says. In the coming weeks, it will be Margherita Hack’s turn: “In this case, it was a bit easier—the Florentine astrophysicist was fond of chocolate and hazelnut cake; it was the only dessert she ate.” From September onwards, flavours inspired by the Milanese poet Alda Merini, the Roman painter Artemisia Gentileschi, the Turin-based scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, as well as flavours dedicated to Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie and Samantha Cristoforetti, will follow. All women who made—and continue to make—history, and who will also be featured in a forthcoming book.

photo by Luca Managlia

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