By Chesca Manalo
Year 13
On the morning of 11 March, our Year 13 Food Technology class visited the ice cream boutique – Giapo. Owned by Gianpaolo Grazioli and his wife Annarosa from Italy, Giapo uses his imagination to change the function of ice cream by offering people different methods to interact with it. Some examples of this are the “selfie cone”, “col0ssal squid”, “ice cream and hot chips”.
At the heart of Giapo is the idea that ingenuity and imagination can be applied to ice cream to change its function. The team is always finding new ways to be innovative through all sorts of disciplines, including design, music, science, art and technology. What they are doing is different from traditional American and Italian ice cream (gelato) as they don’t focus exclusively on changing or creating new flavours, but also on changing its function by offering people different ways to interact with the ice cream.
Giapo interests me because of how they applied the design process and art in developing their ice cream, using sketches, designing their own moulds and adding humor to their designs, which is the only store I know who make ice cream like this. We all enjoyed trying the various creations and talking with Giapo, who is so willing to share his knowledge.
