In the 2010 Sofi Awards of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT), Florham Park’s Ciao Bella won its sixteenth gold medal. The company’s new key lime graham gelato squares took the Sofi (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation) in the category of Outstanding Dessert or Dessert Topping.
The idea, says executive chef Danilo Zecchin, was to respond to customers who wanted more graham cracker than the bits mixed into the company’s key lime graham cracker gelato. So Zecchin designed a gelato square in a graham-cracker sandwich. “I’m Italian,” says Zecchin. “I really like the fruit to have the main flavor. The key lime is very alive, it has tropical impact. For me, that’s fundamental.” Coming from Ciao Bella in the next few months: a blackberry cabernet sorbet bar and a blueberry-passion fruit-swirled sorbet bar.