Ices and Frozen Desserts

Early in the twentieth century even the celebrated French chef Escoffier, in his now-classic compendium of French cooking, Le guide culinaire, prefaced his remarks on and recipes for ices by saying that the Italians were the acknowledged masters of this field. Ices and frozen desserts, in their many variations, are still celebration foods in Italy, where the acquisition of a half-gallon of ice cream is still an undreamed-of luxury. This is mainly because large-scale industrial production of ice cream specialties is still devoted primarily to popsicles and other packaged items that can be picked up at the corner store and to fancy frozen desserts meant to be served in medium- to lesser-quality restaurants.