Name and surname: Cristina Persisti
Place and date of birth: Carpi (Mo) 01/05/1986
Gelateria: Gelati Cristina
Address: Royal road, Trou aux biches (Mauritius)
Gelato art, a perfect (almost perfect) balance between Passion and Business. Would you please balance these ingredients for us and tell us what your recipe to success is?
There's no recipe, only patience and determination. To be a gelatiere is passion to me, not business.
Gelato: love at first sight or a slow falling in love?
Gelato as a food is love at first sight. For what concerns my job it hasn't been slow, rather step-by-step, better said.
Your commitment in one thought. What’s the reason why you get up every morning eager to create a tastier gelato flavour?
Where there's a will, there's a way. I want to keep the flag of Italian artisan gelato flying. "Made in Italy" is not simply a slogan, but a way of life.
Tell us about your training.
I built solid basis, thanks to CGU, but the real and hard school was here, in Mauritius: the fieldwork, trying to meet local needs, totally different from the ones of customers in Italy and Europe, have been my everyday teacher, the following stages of my training.
Maestro Giampaolo Valli's lessons were in the spirit of PASSION, because he passed me on the love he puts in his job and later taught me how to make gelato and use the equipment. I'm pretty sure that his success and the good taste of his gelato depend on this feeling he has.
As far as I'm concerned, every day I pass a new exam, but, as I opened three gelato shops in different areas of the island, opening each one of them was the hardest challenge.
Your first gelateria.
I have had the idea of opening a gelato shop in mind for many years (very few people knows this), but Mauritius were not in the short-list of favourite destinations. Therefore, first of all I started my adventure in this market, then put the idea into effect.
I started following a CGU course, but I had to wait for 8 months before I could open my first gelateria (a Flic en Flac) in 2008.
This delay might seem normal, according to the fact that we had to import everything from Italy. But here things were even slower than usual, therefore those endless eight months caused a lot of stress.
Then the big day arrived and one hour before the opening customers were already queuing in front of the parlour, waiting to taste my gelato. We were a bit panicked before each inauguration, but, on the other hand, those were the most thrilling moments.
The hardest moment was trying to introduce Italian gelato in all its varieties and make the customers (hotels and restaurants in primis) understand that the gelato I introduced was different from the one they were used to eat (ice cream).
I am satisfied of my personal path and I would do it again, but I'd change a few things, above all times and ways of fulfilment.
What I'm sure will stay identical is my laboratory, equipped with Italian machines only.
I have to say thank you to my father for what I achieved: he is the one who gave me the chance to have my own entrepreneurial activity. Then I say thanks to myself, to my stubbornness, and to my husband Nunzio, as well, for his moral and material support: he helped me when I was demoralized.
If you were not a gelatiere (or if gelato didn’t exist) what would your profession be?
I would probably have graduated in Languages and work on a cruise ship, singing and playing the violin.
Or maybe things would have gone differently, but I'm pretty sure I would not live 10,000 Km far from home.
What’s your favourite flavour?
Hazelnut, forever.
Gelato: sweet, savory or...?
It depends on the period and the celebration.
What is the gelato you will never make?
All those that require colouring, I prefer to aim at tradition and classical flavours.
What is the gelato you wish you had created?
It doesn't exist.
Name one flavour for your past, one for your present and one for your future (if you want to, tell us about a project you have).
Strawberry for the past; pistache for the present; for what concerns the future...
My project is still the same: to open a gelato shop in the little village I left to come to Mauritius, offering the same gelato that gave me so much "popularity". This adventure was a challenge to me, it made me understand that you have to fight to impose your own values. Going back to Italy wouldn't be a defeat, indeed!
Message in a bottle for CGU students
The first suggestion I give them is they should strongly believe in what they're doing, be optimist and carry on.
The second is: be cautious. Don't get dazzled by charming destinations seen on postcards or beach chairs on the seaside. Before deciding to turn over a new leaf, be sure you move because of GELATO, not simply to take a break or put an end.
