When we meet Mr. Giovanni Scalici, owner of the gelato shop La Delizia, he explains the formula for his success in one word: “Simplicity.” We are in Sferracavallo, a seaside suburb of Palermo located between the mountains and a beautiful gulf. Here the coast is filled with dozens of seafood restaurants, but if you venture slightly off the promenade you will find this gem of a gelateria on Via Dammuso.
La Delizia has been open since 1992, but its story begins years earlier. Giovanni’s grandfather owned a small delicatessen in Sferracavallo, which he opened after World War II. As Giovanni’s sister proudly says, “My grandfather fed half the village.” For although Sfferracavallo is part of Palermo, is has the air of a village unto itself. At the family delicatessen, Giovanni’s father, Mr. Bartolomeo, began selling packaged gelato from a well-known multinational company. But after having a misunderstanding with the supplier, he decided to make his own gelato, starting with six flavors (today the shop has over 20).
“My father was self-taught,” Giovanni says, “He wanted to understand the structure of gelato and began to do his own studies. He realized that [packaged ice creams] are full of chemicals and started to do without. My father is like that: he decides to make something out of iron? He becomes an iron professional. He decides to raise birds? He becomes an expert on it. With gelato, he did the same; he did his research and studies. Even today, his recipes endure. My sister and I have followed in his footsteps, making just a few adjustments, but the basics are still the same. Our story is so simple that hardly anyone believes it: simplicity and a lot of love for this craft. These are things that seem secondary, but instead they are the basis for doing this work and producing this kind of gelato.”
When he says “this kind of gelato,” Mr. Giovanni is referring to a 100-percent artisanal process. In fact, at La Delizia, no semi-finished products or even coloring agents are used. The gelato served is completely natural, the result of a long process of processing raw ingredients which are personally selected by the Scalici family from local growers. There is an explanatory sign warning customers that, “Each flavor changes from time to time: don’t be disappointed if you don’t find an exact replica of what you liked, but try to appreciate the difference.” Because, as Giovanni explains, each box of fruit, hazelnut or pistachio that arrives at his workshop is different from the previous one, giving the gelato a different taste each time.
“Just like people: everyone has a different character, it can never be the same,” he says. “Customers must be willing to accept these flavors and colors. We don’t put in any chemical components, no food coloring, nothing. Our gelato is never the same, it is always changing. If you want to taste hazelnut always with the same taste, then there is the chemist who always makes it the same for you, but then you pollute the taste buds. This place works because the clientele comes to visit on purpose, by word of mouth. I could not have a mass clientele: if I had a gelato shop where thousands of customers come by, it would be impossible to have this kind of product, and I would be forced to use semi-finished products.”
Although the gelato shop is open from March to October, work in the workshop lasts all year round, including winter. Giovanni, together with his elderly father, personally selects raw ingredients directly at the market or directly from growers, making sure that the fruit he buys is not grown using pesticides. From the mandarins grown in the Ciaculli area of Palermo to the prickly pears that come from Roccaplaumba, each ingredient that enters the La Delizia workshop is carefully selected and processed with dedication and commitment.
It is a job that involves the entire Scalici family: between sisters, brother, brother-in-law, wife, nieces, nephews and son, there are a dozen people who revolve around the production of the gelato. As in an assembly line, everyone has their own role: there are those who peel the fruit, those who squeeze it, and those who bag the juice, which is frozen to be turned into gelato during the months when the shop is open. Thanks to this method you will find available in August excellent gelato flavored with tangerines that are harvested in March. The workmanship is a very complicated and demanding process: the loquats, as Giovanni and his wife explain, must be peeled, pitted, the inner skin removed, and squeezed before they blacken. Everything is done by hand, requiring weeks and weeks of painstaking work for the thousands of pounds of fruit that arrive at the workshop.
“I’d like to kill him,” jokes Giovanni’s wife, referring to the amount of work the Scalici family’s method requires. It is a method, however, that is appreciated by customers and that we can confirm is special: each flavor of gelato at La Delizia has its own particularity, its own story. From tangerine, fragrant and delicate; to lemon-and-basil, the perfect freshness for Sicily’s hot summer days. Next to the shop is an outdoor space made out of a former stable, with benches where you can sit and enjoy your gelato, whether on a cone, in a soft brioche bun or in a cup. Each is prepared with the Scalici family’s love and simplicity – the formula for what is perhaps the best gelato in Palermo.
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