Elato Artisanal Ice Cream founder Roz Kaldor-Aroni loves maths; she studied science and law at university, as well as applied chemistry. She speaks to Pippa Haupt about the mathematical origins of the brand.
Roz Kaldor-Aroni admits she has a sweet tooth, and began experimenting making recipes with her twin sister around a decade ago. It hadn’t occurred to her how married her interests in maths and food were, until her husband gifted her a recipe book with mathematics included in the back.
“It hadn’t really dawned on me that food and maths could actually work together. Ice cream is a little bit of chemistry; but mostly maths.
“That’s how I fell down the ice cream rabbit hole, because I thought: this is just fantastic,” says Kaldor-Aroni.
With her substantial knowledge and interest in these subjects, Kaldor-Aroni found herself wanting more, and started off by signing up for an online gelato making course in Italy; which just made the mathematics behind it more interesting.
“I decided I still wanted to know more, so I also trained in Melbourne at a course for people who wanted to start scoop shops. I did both a beginners and an intermediate class – but both of those didn’t have enough maths for me. I needed to do more theory and understanding; so I went back and finished off advanced gelato training in Italy,” she says.
Gelato vs Ice Cream
Through the training, Kaldor-Aroni realised just how much sugar was in gelato, so she investigated the next best thing: ice cream.
“I realised, to my horror, that ice cream and gelato were opposites. Ice cream has a lot more fat, and a lot less sugar – gelato is the opposite.”
Kaldor-Aroni was adamant that she wanted to make a healthier, cleaner version.
“I said to my husband: I’ve backed the wrong horse here. I think I really should be learning about ice cream instead, because I don’t want to make a high sugar product.
“Even when I was in Italy studying I was asking “can we avoid using these chemicals?” and “what can I use instead?” I just always had this vision of wanting to do something that was chemical free and as healthy as possible – and that definitely wasn’t gelato for me,” she says.
Now with her heart set on ice-cream, Kaldor-Aroni began corresponding with the author of a go-to ice cream text-book, who then invited her to a masterclass in Canada in November 2019, just before Covid.
Moulding the vision
In the early months of the pandemic, Kaldor-Aroni and her husband brainstormed what an ice cream business could look like. Both with philanthropic backgrounds, they wanted something scalable, something big, and something that could do good in the world.
“I said, whatever we do, I want to leverage my skills and knowledge give back.
“Ice cream in general is only made at scale because the equipment you need is quite different to gelato – it’s very large scale equipment – and it’s also very expensive. If we wanted a scalable business, we realised we would need to find a co-packer,” she says.
Despite it all, Kaldor-Aroni says Covid turned out to be fortuitous in this regard.
“We eventually found a relatively small manufacturer where a number of their customers had been cafes and restaurants who were no longer buying its ice cream during lockdowns, and so this group had spare capacity.
“We were delighted with what they helped us develop and they’re still our manufacturer today,” says Kaldor-Aroni.
The R&D for Elato’s recipes took place in Kaldor-Aroni’s kitchen at home; with a plan for them to be lactose-free. While in Canada, she had learned that lactose free ice cream was sweeter and enabled the use of less added sugar.
“The recipes all worked well after two or three iterations because it’s all based on maths and science, which doesn’t change. Not only is it done with maths, but you can make 250 grams at home and then you can add zeros and it still works perfectly – which is completely mind blowing – you don’t have that translatability with a lot of other products.
“The issues came when we scaled the process in the factory. The conditions and equipment were different for moving large volumes of materials compared to what I would use at home on a small scale. For the lactose free ice cream processes, we had beginners’ luck and it all worked perfectly in the factory over the first six months. Then we started to have issues with the products having traces of lactose and had to review and modify the process.
“After a number of batches over about six months, it was all working again.”
Kaldor-Aroni’s recipes, and the addition of soluble fibre to her dairy recipes, saw Elato achieve a 3 Star health star rating and a patent.
Elato officially launched in November 2021, and the brand currently stocks three flavours: Triple Vanilla, Cold Brew Decaf, and Vegan Dark Chocolate.
Not just an indulgent desert and good for the gut, Elato sources natural ingredients with minimal processing. All flavours are artisan, small batch, and from ethical suppliers committed to social impact, with a newflavour also on the way.
Now entering its second year of business, Kaldor-Aroni says testing and learning is still very much at the forefront.
“We are very much about testing and learning and seeing what works. I’m a trained scientist so experimentation is very much part of my reason for being, and how I advance our business,” said Kaldor-Aroni.
This story first appeared in the April/May edition of Food & Drink Business magazine.
