David Braido, 27 years old, born in Gross-Gerau, Germany, grew up in Conegliano, Treviso, in Italy. He moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2010, and since 2013 he has lived in Qatar where, along with his two Italian partners, he opened the Capricci gelato shop. Here are David's answers to our questions.

When did you decide to open a gelato shop? Has it always been a dream of yours or was it a sudden decision? I come from a family of two generations of gelato artisans. My grandfather opened his first gelato shop in 1960 in Frankfurt, followed by a second in Gross-Gerau in 1965. My father continued working in the same shop until 2010. That same year, with my father’s help, my brother opened another store in Conegliano. At the time, I was working for the Carpigiani dealer in the United Arab Emirates. I was the only one in the family who never considered opening a store of my own, but in the end I went ahead and opened a gelato shop. I changed my mind because I traveled a lot around Dubai and while I was in Qatar I saw there were some great opportunities. Before I arrived in Doha there were only three gelato shops, which used only readymade ingredients to produce gelato. My partner Andrea Dal Farra and I were the first to use exclusively natural ingredients.

Why did you decide to produce and sell gelato? Evidently this business is in my DNA. If you are born in a gelato shop you will probably do that as a career. Watching an artisan going through the steps of making his product every day on a subconscious level trains you to know every aspect of the job.

Where did you learn about Carpigiani Gelato University? Why did you decide to register for courses? The dealer where I worked in Dubai had organized a beginner gelato course taught by Luciano Ferrari, so I participated in the course.

What is the mission of your gelato shop? Produce an impeccable gelato reflecting quality and craftsmanship. The ingredients must always be natural and used in a production area visible to the public. To guarantee a standard of such high quality we spare no expense.

What was the inspiration for the name of your gelato shop? In the beginning my partners and I had thought to give the shop the name of a famous Italian. But while I was looking for inspiration on the Internet I found an article entitled “Capricci del palato” (“Whims of the palate”). I decided right there that the name of my shop had to be Capricci.

Tell me about a typical day in the shop. I handle relations with large hotels. Our main customers, for whom we produce large volumes of gelato, are luxury and five-star hotels like the St Regis. We also produce gelato for Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. And we have supply agreements with international franchises like Carluccio’s and Nando’s. I spend the morning in meetings and looking for new customers, letting them taste our products. The rest of my day is spent in the production area where there are three of us working, all Italian. My partner Andrea handles internal operations and accounting, while another associate and friend Simone focuses mainly on production. While we all have designated roles in the business, when necessary we are interchangeable; during busy times I will also get involved with production.

Right now it is Ramadan and so we have developed some special flavors. We are the only business offering this type of gelato. Right now we have many requests. For example, many hotels are asking for display cases for Ramadan celebration ceremonies. We placed a dipping counter in a ballroom. We are supplying gelato for 1,000-1,200 people per day per hotel.

What part of your work do you like the most? I like dealing with new situations every day. Our customers are all similar because they are all very important, but at the same time they are very different: western businesspeople, chefs, emirs, ambassadors. Every day there is a new situation and I have to behave differently, and this is very stimulating.

What is your favorite flavor? Vanilla.

Is there a flavor you enjoy making the most? Vanilla, because it is a difficult flavor, a test of skill. In fact, all the ingredients must be delicately chosen, you have to know how to clean the pods, remove the seeds, and use fresh eggs. Vanilla is a gelato shop’s business card, the first flavor you taste when you are trying a new shop.

What is your customers’ favorite flavor? We always try new things and our customers are curious to try out our new flavors. But they really like Pistachio. They’re passionate about it.

In the country where you work, is artisanal gelato known? Or is it confused with industrial ice cream? In general, the western customers we work with know the difference between gelato and ice cream, but the local Qataris don’t know the difference and this is why we are working very hard on educating our customers. Every time we meet a new customer or someone visits our shop for the first time we have to explain that our gelato is made with natural ingredients, without coloring, bulking, or freeze-dried or readymade ingredients.

How do you communicate the craftsmanship of your product? Our shop has a production area with Carpigiani machines visible to the public. Customers can stop and watch us work and we are always happy to explain how we make the gelato. We usually produce it in the evening, when we have more customers. In Qatar there are lots of people who have high cholesterol and diabetes. For this reason it’s important for them to know that our gelato is healthy and not bad for them.

In your opinion, what is the key to success for a gelato shop? Know how to sell product. It is not enough to offer an excellent product; you have to know how to professionally manage communication and marketing. You have to be dynamic and free of rigid frames of mind. You have to know how to reinvent yourself every day and adapt to the local culture, reinterpreting local products in your gelato. For example, here in Doha we offer flavors like saffron, dates, rose water, black tea, cardamom, and pistachio. We use Iranian pistachios that we toast ourselves. Without a doubt, pistachio flavor is the lingua franca that best combines Italian and Middle Eastern cultures.

How do you communicate with customers and how do you make yourself known? Do you use social networks a lot? We use social networks intensively, especially Instagram, the most popular social app in Qatar, a country where everybody always has a cell phone in hand. In Qatar alone we have around 11,000 followers between Instagram and Facebook. When we published a picture of our Spaghetti flavor, threads of vanilla gelato with strawberry topping and a dusting of coconut, people went crazy. Many came to the shop to try the flavor, and, not knowing how to correctly pronounce the flavor’s name, showed the picture on their cell phones to let us know what they wanted. In other words, with social networks we can promote the business in real time.

How and how much has your life changed since you opened your gelato shop? I sleep a lot less. Joking aside, each day I have more responsibility than the day before. In the beginning I was happy every time I served a normal customer, but little by little we were able to add larger accounts. Even members of the royal family have tasted our gelato and the first cousin of the emir has come to our shop. This is something that really makes us proud.

What are your plans for the future? Do you want to open more shops? We have had a few requests to start a franchise so we are working on it. With this formula we want to open in the USA and in Dubai. We want to be the number one gelato chain in the Gulf region.

What is the message/advice that you would offer students at CGU courses or to anyone who wants to start a career in gelato? For sure you need to understand what you want to do. You have to know all aspects of your job: production, management, work organization, relationships with customers. From the beginning, you have to get it into your head that being a gelato artisan does not mean just making gelato. As they say in Italy, when you’ve set yourself a goal you need to “lower your head and pedal.” And then, when you reach the finish line, find a new goal and work hard to reach the next level.

Picture of the shop:  https://it-it.facebook.com/CapricciGelato