Over in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, a little shop by the name of Tovelli’s Gelato Café has become an overnight success. Word of Ed Tovelli’s 20-something different offerings of all-natural gelato and sorbetto has spread throughout New York City like wildfire, with customers coming from as far as Long Island and as much as three times a day for a bowl of authentic Italian ice cream.

Most of Tovelli’s business comes from the Orthodox Jewish community, due in part to the fact that he is the only one in the Big Apple selling gelato adhering to the kosher standards of Cholov Yisroel. Cholov Yisroel is the highest kosher status available for milk and requires the presence of a rabbi from the time it is milked from the animal to when it is shipped to the retailer. Anything made with Cholov Yisroel milk must contain all-kosher ingredients and be processed with kosher equipment.

“We’re in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, but there are no other kosher ice cream stores in the area, so I guess you can say we’re filling a niche,” said Tovelli, who after only two months of being in business has a sales volume four times higher than a normal retailer.

While Tovelli’s is the only place selling Cholov Yisroel gelato and sorbet in New York City, his supplier, Palazzolo’s, are the only ones certified to make it.     

“I’m able to say that I’m the first one in the United States that’s giving them a product of this quality, and that’s an honor,” said Pete Palazzolo from the production room of his Saugatuck Township-based factory while his employees prepare Tovelli’s latest order of gelato.

The guardians of kosher law for a product to be considered kosher, it must be certified by a Jewish certifying agency. Kosher standards vary depending on the food type and how it is made. A label located on the packaging of the product will indicate its kosher status as well as the agency that certified it.  

At the request of several of his restaurant customers in New York, Palazzolo became kosher-certified about four years ago through the Chicago Rabbinical Council, one of the oldest, largest and most highly respected kosher-certifying agencies in North America. As part of the initial approval process, Palazollo’s plant had to undergo a thorough inspection by a CRC rabbinic coordinator.

“We were already certified as kosher, but not to this level,” he said of his company’s current certification status.  “We had to really bring it up another notch to get to this stage of certification.”

The importance of Kosher

Overseeing Tovelli’s latest gelato and sorbetto order at the Palazzolo plant is Rabbi Weingarten, a part-time kosher certification agent whose primary job is running two synagogues in Lansing and Grand Rapids. Weingarten said that the advent of kosher certifying agencies came out of the need to assure the Jewish community that secular parties supplying food to them were adhering to regulatory dietary standards set forth in the Torah.

Today, he said that some Jewish families follow only a minimum of kosher standards, while others just adhere to the United States Department of Agriculture guidelines, citing reasons such as scarcity, higher cost and lack of variety  among kosher products.

“The ultra-orthodox (Jews) will continue to watch the process because that’s the way it has always been done and to some degree, it continues to be a problem,” he said.

Weingarten also said that contrary to popular belief, blessing the food as it is being made is not part of the kosher certification process. “Blessings are only made when an animal is slaughtered and when food is being eaten,” he said.   

Quality comes first

While it’s not even been six months since Palazzolo started making special orders of kosher gelato for Tovelli, word about their relationship has quickly spread. Palazzolo said that he has had discussions with several other vendors interested in distributing his Cholov Yisroel gelato, but wants to work out some kinks first with some of the flavors as well as deal with some scoopability issues before expanding his customer base.

Copyright © 2006 The Commercial Record, Saugatuck/Douglas, Michigan