Ice-Creams and Sorbets

Alain Chapel’s restaurant at Mionnay is one of the world’s gastronomic temples, known not only for the refinement of Chapel’s Bressane cuisine but also for the fact that he re-defined aspects of sorbet and ice-cream making in the culinary revolution of the early 1960s.

There are three factors that affect the smoothness of ice-cream and sorbet, Chapel reasoned: temperature, sugar and the speed with which the ice crystals are removed from the freezing surface. However, high levels of sugar kill fresh fruit tastes. Chapel reduced the level of sugar and served the ice-creams and sorbets fresh from the churn. In order to keep the ices during service they are placed in silver containers that have been refrigerated and thus maintain the original texture of the ice.