The story of the Salento DJ making ice cream in Italy’s easternmost town

“After all, making ice cream is like making beats.” The words of ice cream maker Francesco Fisotti are filled with rhythm and flavour. In Otranto, they still call him GSQ, a sort of nickname from his hip hop days. The owner of Gelateria Fisotti is also a music producer, and he explains how the worlds of music and ice cream are not as different as they seem. His artistic vision may well be one of the secrets behind the success of his small-town gelateria, which despite its modest size has gained a solid reputation (awarded two cones in our Gelaterie d’Italia 2025 guide).

Every day, the DJ prepares his gelato, infusing it with his street and underground background — the creative streak that has followed him in the gastronomic world ever since he started, when the shop was originally named after the square it still sits in, Piazza Cavour, just a stone’s throw from the sea. It’s an identity he is proud of, as shown in the shop’s logo: a cone holding a vinyl record like a scoop of gelato, complete with the tagline “Fresh Gelato and Fonky Beats.” A seemingly minor detail that actually says a lot about this surprising provincial gem.

Francesco Fisotti, aka GSQ

Two paths that cross

Since his teenage years, Francesco, born in 1986 in Salento, cultivated a passion for music by hanging out in dancehall scenes before later exploring other genres beyond reggae: “I was involved in various musical circuits, genres and subgenres of underground culture. Around the time I opened the gelateria, we were deep into the hip hop beat phase, so I started experimenting with those instrumentals.”

In 2018, he founded the record label Quattro Bambole Records, inspired by Piero Umiliani’s soundtrack for the Mario Bava thriller. From house to broken beat to Italo disco, he has now reached his twenty-sixth record, contributing as executive producer, arranger, or artist — either under a pseudonym or his real name.

His interest in gelato, however, came later, and, as he says, purely by chance. Indeed, Francesco didn’t attend culinary school. At twenty, his background was entirely academic, having studied sociology at university. A completely different field — although he had held various jobs as a waiter, bartender, or bakery worker. Like many local youths, he worked in hospitality during the summer, given the region’s long-standing connection with tourism.

Feeling out of place and isolated compared to many peers because of his “intellectual” path, he decided to change course and take up a craft. In 2012, he opened Gelateria Cavour, which was later rebranded Gelateria Fisotti after the pandemic. He deepened his technical knowledge by training with master gelato makers such as Pino Scaringella, Roberto Lobrano, and Manuele Presenti.

The union

In Francesco Fisotti’s daily life, music and gelato go hand in hand. They seem connected by a fil rouge: the research process needed to reach the final product. To explain, GSQ cites one of hip hop’s core principles, Diggin’ in the crates:
“Literally, it means digging through records — searching for samples, segments, or phrases in other musical genres. We almost steal them, with the aim of creating a beat. This continuous and obsessive research is common to both music and gelato.”

It’s a mindset he brings to everything — from selecting raw ingredients to defining the best flavour combinations: “We’re talking about researching ingredients and the steps to assemble them. Just like combining different instrument sounds to compose a track.”

The purist philosophy

This mindset has gradually enabled him to raise the bar and achieve a product quality worthy of recognition. And to think he started with semi-finished products. But now for years, he has adopted a purist approach to ice cream, aiming for a tasting experience where the main ingredient is clearly distinguishable, manually incorporated into the mix — and with reduced sugar content.

Fisotti follows what he calls “the simple philosophy of real gelato. The result of a genuine balance between the recipe’s elements, with no use of pre-made products.” Only fresh fruit is used. No pulps or ready-made purées.

He even worked with a food technologist from the Martano agricultural consortium to create a “natural” fig jam — only grape juice is added — which he uses in various recipes.

With the same rigour, he develops flavours based on local ingredients. The result is a display of gelatos with a distinctly local taste, transforming products mostly supplied by his trusted fruit vendor, Ada, with whom he shares not just a business relationship but genuine affection.

Otherwise, he sources ingredients from a small Apulian pistachio grove, his grandfather’s fig tree, a friend’s black mulberry, or, for example, from Torre Sant’Emiliano dairy, which supplies the sheep’s ricotta used in a special gelato showcased at the Sherbeth Festival last year, enriched with cellina black olive jam and orange zest.

There are also flavours with dazzling colours — but never artificial dyes, which “can make what’s in the tub look fake.” Only natural pigments are used: sometimes from the Opuntia prickly pear variety, which gives the gelato a fuchsia hue; sometimes from a flower that tints a vanilla-infused fiordilatte blue — an “experimental” reinterpretation of the Italian classic puffo flavour.

Standing out from the tourist offering

Doing such in-depth work in a provincial area is not easy — especially in tourist-heavy destinations where businesses often cater to casual, mass tourism. Many establishments are not always willing to invest in quality.

As Fisotti admits: “Although younger generations are trying to innovate, many aren't interested in improving their offering or pushing beyond their limits.”

Yet with long queues of customers congratulating the staff with lines like “this is the best ice cream I ever ate in my life,” perhaps the gelateria in Largo Cavour has already sparked a new entrepreneurial trend — a break from the past.

For his part, Francesco wanted more than just “bringing home the bacon.” A mindset he attributes to his musical background:
“Coming from the hip hop world, credibility and reputation have always been fundamental to me. Only a madman like me would aim for such a niche, refined production for the masses. But I wanted to be respected for the quality of what I make — not for how much money I make. I’d never want anyone to think that what I’ve achieved so far is down to luck.”

Fisotti is a force of nature — perhaps a bit extreme in some of his views. But it seems the town loves him. He and his close-knit team — whom he calls “a family” — are now often stopped in the street by many locals, amused by the sarcastic reels they post to promote the gelateria. Just to give an idea of how popular some team members have become.

For all this, Gelateria Fisotti might just be one more reason to visit the beautiful historic town of Otranto.