by Jim Marmion

The supplier show season is in full swing. New and updated items are always the talk of this season and can be everything from new equipment to the re launch of products from the past. There has been one particular item I have seen in growing demand. This item or series of items are generically named Gourmet Ice Cream Pops. This category though is not limited to ice cream. You can produce your own gourmet pops using everything from ice cream, to gelato, to custard, to sorbet, to water ice, sherbets, to soft serve.

The primary tool you need to accomplish these gourmet pops is the correct flexible molds. Flexible molds are not new but they have expanded in variety. The company I have found with the widest variety is named Silikomart. These are silicone molds that can be used for both cold (down to minus 60 degrees F) to hot (up to 450 degrees F). The variety of shapes and sizes is unbelievable with titles like, Discotto, Double Flavor, Double Mini, Classic Standard, Classic Mini, Crock Standard, Crock Mini, Heart Standard, Heart Mini, Chocó stick Standard, Cookie Flex Classic, Cookie Flex Round, Cookie Flex Slim, Tango Standard, Tango Min Chic, Hand Shaped Molds, and Smile Molds, that is a wide variety!

My own experience has taught me how simple these molds are to use, even the wood stick holder has a guide to line it correctly and stay in place until you remove. To fill the mold, just take your product, which can be anything from tub or pan, or a soft serve machine and fill the molds using a piping bag or a spoon. Level the product in the mold with a pastry knife or a bowl scraper, add the stick and place in at least a -5F degree freezer for a minimum of 3 hours, but for best results leave in overnight.

When frozen to the core, just "pop" them out decorate using just about any type of coating, topping, sprinkles, nuts, etc, you can even paint them!

At this point you are ready to sell. Silikomat even has specialty design display trays for your gourmet pops so you can display for a "sticks up" or "pops up" presentation.

The variety of flavors, colors, and shapes, is just about unlimited, think of the holiday and special dates product, and do not forget to package in multiples for takeout, take home. We have clients that now offer gourmet pops for their catering events with huge success.

The profits are fantastic; the selling points are higher than the same size individual servings. Some gourmet pop makers use their fresh ice cream that is toward the end of the tub or pan, for soft serve some producers use the product they extract from their machines, when preparing to clean, instead of throwing out the product, and then fill their molds.

Creativity is the key, these molds also allow you to produce "filled" pops, one that have a filling or even a multi layer and multi flavors all in one pop, you are only limited by your imagination.

Today's customer is looking for the added experience, the new, colorful, and different as a reason why they shop. These silicone molds used for "Gourmet" ice cream pops and MORE, allow you to enhance and engage your customers, and the molds are simple to use and allow you to create more fun and color to your store.

I encourage you to start, if you would like more information please check out our ice cream silicone mold page.

Multichef Unsurpassed for Pastry and Frozen Desserts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Greensboro, NC) As dining guest grow more sophisticated and adventurous, kitchens must be equipped with tools and technologies that can profitably and consistently produce top quality results. The Multichef by Cattabriga provides the extraordinary versatility of pre-programmable, precisely controlled multi-step functions needed. For the first time, American chefs and artisan dessert makers now have access to the Multichef and can see the products exhibited by Advanced Gourmet Equipment and Design in booth #6650 at NRA Show 2012, May 5-8 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

“From pâte à choux, pastry fillings, and chocolate tempering to fabulous gelato, sorbets, and ice cream, the Multichef is the most versatile culinary assistant on earth” said Jim Hall, President, Advanced Gourmet. “Plus, with the heat/chill/freeze functionality, the Multichef opens the door for those who desire to explore and experiment in a precisely controlled environment.”

Mr. Hall added, “Virtually every item on the menu is important and can be delivered better. Even “classic” menu items with the most ingrained, traditional preparation methods can now be produced to exacting standards faster and at lower cost than ever imagined using Multichef technology. The Multichef is truly a culinary workhorse which allows chefs to open their creativity and precisely produce a huge array of exceptional products when needed and in the exact quantities desired.”

The Multichef was invented in Switzerland in 1935 to meet the demanding needs of top pastry chefs. Over the last 77 years it has undergone an evolutionary process that has resulted in an incredible device that can automatically heat, cool and freeze inside a single vertical cylinder. Today, the Multichef is a critical component of of many kitchens throughout the world and is now available in North America through Advanced Gourmet Equipment & Design.

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Advanced Gourmet Equipment and Design offers one of the most complete café design/build programs today available in the USA and is a “one-stop” source for advanced equipment solutions for the modern kitchen and retail frozen dessert shops. AG owners have helped open and improve hundreds of operations throughout the United States and Canada including concepts for Cold Stone Creamery, Marble Slab, Maggie Moos, Bruesters, Hard Rock Café, and other leading companies.

Today is our last day at the NRA show in Chicago.  Thank you to those who stopped by. 

Below are some pictures from our booth.

AG would like to congratulate our friends at Fresca Café and Gelato on the opening their new store. Check out their Facebook page.

We were honored to be able to help them with their store's Design and Build. The pictures below speak for themselves.

Congrats, Fresca!

One of the store's owners, the manager, and AG's chef Plamen Marinov.

We are very happy that our city finally has a Whole Foods! It opened its doors today at 9am.

And we are also pleased that they are carrying so many local products, including Fortuna Coffee, Anna Mae Southern Bread, Carolina Coffee, and of course, fresh gelato from Advanced Gourmet. AG also provided this beautiful gelato case for them.

Check out some of the pictures below.

Gelato display case from AG.

Fresh gelato. Anyone?

Jim Marmion (right) of AG with a representative from Whole Foods.

We are making all kinds of recipes today using the Cattabriga Effe and Multichef machines. Our visitor, Antonio (pictured below) flew from NYC to learn how to use both machines. We will post some videos soon.

If you are about to open your own café or ice cream shop and are looking for an easy and efficient way to take orders and process payments, a wireless point-of-sale app like POSLavu will probably seem like a good option.

We first heard about it from one of our clients, (Freska in Cary, NC) who plan to use it at their gelato bar and café, and we thought others could benefit from this information as well.

Disclaimer: we are not associated with POSLavu in any way.

So, what exactly can this Point-of-Sale app do? From taking and ringing orders to keeping track of seats, processing credit cards, and splitting checks, it does everything you need it to do in the front of the house.

In addition, it keeps track of sales / costs / inventory, keeps a record of customers emails, tracks employees’ time, among other things.

Sleek, easy to use, and cost-effective, many restaurants worldwide are using the system, which costs $1500 for the license (one time fee) and around $50 per month (they have different plans). For more information about the app, visit their site: http://www.poslavu.com/ For press coverage, including how restaurants are using it, read their blog: http://blog.poslavu.com/

Part of our team is in Las Vegas this week at the Catersource Conference.  Please stop by our booth and try some tasty treats!

We also have a very nice special going on for the Pacojet system; contact us for details if you are interested.

Toppings buffett

Advanced Gourmet / Pacojet booth

Hi everyone!

We just posted the presentation given by our Jim Marmion at the Penn State "Ice Cream 101" class last week. Please let us know if you have any questions about it.