Talk
Free
Gelato desserts
Saturday 14 November · 17:00–17:45
Officina Culturale - Piazza Verdi
How do you build a dessert around gelato? Technique, temperatures and textures become the tools for composing a plate in which every element contributes to the balance of the tasting.
With
Paolo Griffa
Owner and Chef of the Caffè Nazionale in Aosta, one Michelin star. Born in 1991 in Piedmont, Griffa trained in some of the world's best restaurants — Combal.Zero (IT), Chateaubriand (FR), Studio (DK) — then at Marco Sacco's two-star Piccolo Lago in Verbania, where he rose from pastry chef to a very young sous chef thanks to his global vision and a spontaneous 'gentle leadership'. At the end of 2015 he won the S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 award for Italy; from March 2016 he joined the brigade of two-star Serge Vieira. In October 2017 he took part in the Italian selection of the Bocuse d'Or before becoming, in December 2017, Executive Chef of the Grand Hotel Royal e Golf in Courmayeur and chef of the Petit Royal, which received its first Michelin star in 2019, the year he published the illustrated monograph Petit Royal. In 2021 he launched the Easter Bomb, a piece of creative haute pâtisserie, and was listed by Forbes among Italy's 100 most influential under-30s. In 2022 he obtained 4 toques from L'Espresso and was admitted as Pastry Chef to AMPI – Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani. At the end of August 2022 he moved his starred restaurant to the Caffè Nazionale in Aosta: 'Paolo Griffa al Caffè Nazionale', one of Italy's most technological restaurants, set in a historic venue with a 14th-century chapel and a private room above the Roman forum, received its first Michelin star in November 2022. In October 2023 Paolo Griffa and Titti Traina received Gambero Rosso's 'Bar d'Italia' and 'Pastry Chef of the Year' awards; in 2024 the Caffè confirmed for the third year the 'Tre Chicchi e Tre Tazzine' of the Bar d'Italia guide, the only café in Valle d'Aosta to do so, and Griffa published Dessert al Ristorante (Italian Gourmet). In August 2024 Griffa and Traina created an exclusive line of viennoiseries and single portions for Skyway, the Mont Blanc cable cars, to be enjoyed at 3,466 metres. In September 2026 Paolo Griffa al Caffè Nazionale turns four, continuing its path of avant-garde and refinement in haute cuisine and pâtisserie in Valle d'Aosta.
With
Gian Paolo Capaldo
The Rag.
Gian Paolo Capaldo is the founder and gelato maker of The Rag., an artisan gelateria opened in 2024 in Atripalda. The project came from the desire to offer a gelato made entirely from raw ingredients, without industrial bases or semi-finished products, with constant attention to the quality of every ingredient. The production philosophy is founded on craftsmanship, research and respect for the natural characteristics of raw ingredients: every recipe is developed to enhance flavour, balance and identity, combining contemporary technique and gastronomic sensitivity. Its distinctive feature is the will to tell the story of Irpinia through gelato, reinterpreting local ingredients and traditions in a modern, elegant and accessible key. Alongside the great classics, The Rag. offers original flavours and unexpected pairings that engage with memory, place and travel. Despite the project’s young age, the gelateria has already earned national recognition, such as 25th place in Dissapore’s ranking of the 100 best artisan gelaterias in Italy and inclusion in Gambero Rosso’s Guida Gelaterie d’Italia 2027, confirming a clear vision: to promote a gelato culture based on authenticity, innovation and quality.
Hosted by
Chiara Cavalleris
Editor of Dissapore, she has run Italy's most 'fiercely honest' food magazine since 2018. A journalist by vocation and a gastronome by profession, she graduated in Communication at La Sapienza and in Gastronomic Sciences at Pollenzo, combining experience in news and current affairs with the agri-food world. Critical spirit, socio-political analysis applied to food and irreverent sarcasm are the mantras of her work.
Tasty are the festival's credit. Buy them as often as you like, picking the package you prefer — from your phone or at one of the tills — and then go from stand to stand without reaching for anything again.
One Tasty is worth one euro of gelato. But each package is an offer of its own: the bigger it is, the more Tasty we throw in. Keep an eye on the promotions.
At the stand you open your wallet and let them scan your Wallet QR code, or you read out your Code. The maker reads it, the Tasty move, and the gelato is yours.
The code lives in the bottom bar, under your thumb: keep it ready while you queue.
Every gelato you taste, you can review. Reviews count towards the audience prizes, and they earn you free Tasty.
And the more Tasty you gather, the more spins of the wheel you get — where you win more Tasty.
You can send Tasty to anyone, as many as you like, and receive them from anyone who sends you some. And if you are holding a receipt with Tasty on it, you load it and they land in your wallet: that works even for a receipt you did not buy yourself — anyone can hand it to you, the way a paper voucher is handed over.
Whatever is left stays where it is, and you can always hand some to whoever is with you.
Tastings, meetings with the master makers, award nights: you look at the programme, book your seat and turn up.
The ticket is a QR like the wallet one: show it at the door and you are in.
Who is taking part, which flavours they bring and where in the square their stand is: the map tells you in one tap, and each maker's page tells you the rest.
Favourite the ones you want to taste: you will find them together once you are there.
