Gelato

The practice of preserving snow in caves was brought to Sicily by the Arabs. There also snow was mixed with citrus fruit pulp to make early sorbets. The Romans then developed the techniques of mixing snow and ice with fruit and honey. In 1533, Caterina de Medici took this, among many other culinary novelties, with her to France when she married Henri II.

It was, however, a Sicilian, Francesco Procopio, who opened a café in Paris at which new techniques were used to produce real ice-cream, based on cream, eggs and sugar, as we know it today. However, the invention of this product has actually been credited to a French chef of the British King Charles I, in 1650.