Ever wondered where ice cream came from? Here is what we found out.

For as strange as it might seem, China seems to have been there before everybody else, once again! We Italians are still not giving in on the “Spaghetti” issue (as Tony Soprano said: “How can they have invented something you clearly need a fork to eat with, when they use sticks!”), but this time history seems to be favorable to the far east. The tradition of using ice, or snow, collected during winter time to be used throughout the year and turn it into a dessert adding fruits or other sweet ingredients, was already in use in ancient China. The Arab traders later introduced it into southern Italy, in Sicily to be exact. The original Arabic name for this dessert was "sharba", from where the Italian name of "sorbetto" probably originates.

Nevertheless, it is also quite well known that both the Greeks and the Romans used to collect snow during winter and store it in holes dug deep in the ground, to be later used to prepare fruit based desserts.

If history is therefore rather “hazy” on this subject, the unquestionable responsibility for giving ice cream the fame and glory it enjoys today, goes to the Italians. From Italy, between the 16th and 17th century, the tradition of ice cream was first exported to Paris, France, and later all over Europe.

The best ice cream artisans were from Naples and Sicily. One of them was Domenico Pepino. Originally from Naples, in 1884 he brought his ice cream to Turin, in Northern Italy. Turin was already the main center of  Italian pastry. This flamboyant character introduced his own special ice cream creations, among which one was called the "Pezzo Duro", or the "Hard One". This peculiar ice cream composition was particularly enjoyed by his regular customers, who, for some reason, happened to be mainly ladies!

The idea of the cone, instead, came to an ice cream maker during a World Trade Fair is St. Luis, USA, in 1904. Having run out of cups for his ice cream, he had the brilliant idea of using the cone shaped wafer sold by his next door trade fair exhibitor. Out of an emergency situation came one of the most popular idea ever!