The first time I tried gelato was when I was 8 years old.
My father was born and raised in a small town outside of Naples called Andretta, and my mother’s family came from Northern Italy. We were visiting extended family in my youth when I discovered after-dinner gelato. It seemed to be mandatory and more essential than keeping your elbows off the table. Upon returning home, I could never forgot the wonderful, authentic gelato taste, and I wanted to bring this Italian tradition to my American home.
After searching far and wide into my 20s, I finally found a small mom-and-pop business that shared my passion. They created their own custom gelato, and the flavors brought me back to my youth, reminding me of dinnertime in Italy. I loved it so much, I went to work at their café. But like many a young man, I was restless, and soon left to pursue my passions of working on race cars and traveling around the world.
One evening after returning home, I found myself back at the café enjoying the comfort of their delicious gelato. The owner approached and bluntly asked if I wanted to work at their production plant to make gelato for the café and other restaurants in the area. “Si signore,” I said without hesitation, and suddenly I was making multi-award-winning gelato full time. I worked with the owner for thirteen years, and absolutely loved it!
Then a new passion came into my life — well, two passions actually! In 2006, I met my beautiful, funny, hard-working, Italian-American wife Tina. I wooed her with gelato… and more traditional means… and we were married two years later. A few years after that, I got the best birthday gift ever… my son. At that point, I decided once again to leave the gelato plant to spend more time with my family.
I became a responsible parent. I got a 9-5 job to provide with a steady paycheck. But life throws a lot of curveballs. My wife was surprisingly diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2019, right before the Coronavirus changed the world. Life as we all knew it was changing. And my wife reminded me that life is short, full of fear and change, but we’ve always come out on top together.
Why not work together on something we both love to create a life of sweetness, pleasure, and happiness during a time of discomfort, fear, and frustration?
And that’s how we found ourselves here in the Creamatorium, creating high-quality, authentic Italian gelato packaged, produced, and delivered straight to your door in a clean, safe environment following all safety precautions and specifications.
And for the record, I haven’t given up on my other passions. My son helps me make and create the flavors. My wife handles marketing, promotion — and our household! And as for my love of car racing, Creamatorium sponsors two different race cars. An endurance car, themed after ice cream and aptly named Creamatorium, races non-stop for 24-hours with my small but mighty team, and a 1967 Camaro I’ve owned and improved since I was 16 years old, competes in drag racing.
I’m thrilled to share all of my passions with you. “Mangia!” as my Nonna would say.