The Launceston couple banked their superannuation into Della Valle Gelato two-years ago, and have already received fine-food awards for their product.

This year they will be one of 22 Northern food and beverage producers at the Taste of Tasmania, making 800 kilograms of their gelato to sell to the masses.

Their Italian ice-cream making skills were learned at the Gelato University in Bologna, Italy. 

Mrs Kunde said the pair make their gelato with Tasmanian produced ingredients such as chocolate, lavender, coffee, whiskey, fruit and nuts, but have also been creative with some “kooky” ice-cream ingredients such as bacon, maple syrup, Gorgonzola cheese, salmon and wasabi.

“It is a lot of fun. You can make gelato out of almost anything and we have used some absolutely crazy ingredients but the caveat is just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” Mrs Kunde said. 

“We tried to make a tomato gelato, and tried making it three different ways, but it was just disgusting,” she said.

“At the moment we are working on trying to introduce miso into our gelato for an umami flavour.”

Mrs Kunde said their chemistry background certainly helped in the gelato-making process.

She worked in Launceston General Hospital pathology for 25 years, while Mr Kunde is still practising bio-chemistry.

“Many years ago we read a book on all these kooky ice creams from a couple of guys in America – egg and bacon, and beer ice-cream.  We tried making a few of those and I guess the seed was planted,” she said.

“Then when Dale went to Italy for research I tagged along and went to the gelato university. It was an intense course, so much fun, and they sell you the dream.  When we got back to Australia it just snowballed.”

As for the Taste of Tasmania Mrs Kunde said it was the food producer pinnacle.

“We get so much satisfaction out of people enjoying our products.”

Della Valle Gelato will be at the Taste of Tasmania from December 31 until January 3.  The festival starts in Hobart on December 28.