Magazine: A semi-pro at the top!

Dávid Wilheim, a young confectioner from Nagykanizsa won this year’s Ice Cream of the Year competition.

Your success is like an ‘American dream’!

Yes, in the sense that I also started my career washing dishes. I learned the trade as an adult at an OKJ course. Ours is a small family businesses: I make the ice cream and my wife sells it. I have never won any prizes before.

Will you enter Ice Cream of the Year next year?

Yes, I will if I have inspiration. It worked the same way this year and luckily the jury liked my creation.

Not everyone can be inspired!

This prize tells me that I am on the right path. I showed that it is possible to make the best ice cream by using natural ingredients only.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

We exclusively use natural ingredients in Da Crema, if anything inspires me, it is these. I like to play with flavours and to create a harmony of ingredients. Nowadays I am very much into special spices and herbs. There are no limits in ice cream making!

It sounds unbelievable: How can you make artisan ice cream when you sell a scoop for only 250 forints?

This is a trade that isn’t only about creative ideas, but also rational thinking. I have learned how to achieve a balance of ingredients and my teachers at the Carpigiani Gelato university in Bologna reassured me about my beliefs – I actually learned the basics there. Believe me, you can make good ice cream from this sum, it is only that I must make the ice cream base myself, this way it is about 60 percent cheaper!

You have chosen the harder way!

I am mad about quality and I didn’t want to be just one from the 17 ice cream parlours in Nagykanizsa. After winning Ice Cream of the Year many people come to me to taste the winner hazelnut ice cream.

Do you use any marketing tools?

My view is that social media is essential in promoting an ice cream parlour. I need the feedback, but I don’t see any points in price discounts and other promotional tools. //