S3-01. Thirteen Ice Cream - Beran Cristini

In this episode of A Table in the Corner, I chat to Bérengère Cristini, (Beran to her friends) founder of Thirteen Ice Cream, a Cape Town ice cream maker supplying restaurants, chefs and specialist food retailers. Originally from Burgundy, Beran trained as a chef in France, working in professional kitchens in Paris and Monaco before moving into pastry and food production. He came to Cape Town in 2013 and established the business that would become 13 Ice Cream, formerly known as Sorbetier.

We discuss the decision to build a production business rather than open a restaurant, and how supplying chefs with bespoke ice cream flavours gives them options they might not have the equipment or time to produce themselves. We scoop a little into the technical side of making ice cream and sorbet, from balancing sugar and fat to managing texture and working with seasonal South African fruit. We also talk about the more unusual flavours he has developed for restaurants, including caramelised onion ice cream served with gazpacho, strawberry with basil and vanilla with Sichuan pepper.

We also look at how Thirteen Ice Cream has grown over the past 13 years, its distribution through Wild Peacock, the expanding range available directly from its Woodstock shop and Beran’s more recent move into sourdough bread. It's a conversation about the craft and science of ice cream making, the relationship between a specialist producer and restaurant kitchens, and the business of building a food company around a product rather than a restaurant.

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• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay