Renaissance Italy Gave Us More Than Art: It Gave Us Ice Cream

Cosme I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Florence in 1537, tasked Bernardo Buontalenti with creating a banquet surprise for visiting Spanish guests, leading to an early version of ice cream. Buontalenti built upon existing practices of chilling fruit and honey, common in ancient Greece, Persia, and China, by combining snow with milk, eggs, and citrus, then sweetening it.

This innovation gained popularity at the Florentine court and eventually spread to France through Catherine de' Medici, who brought Italian chefs and culinary traditions with her when she married into the French royal family. The dessert’s popularity continued to grow with the opening of the Café Procope in Paris in 1686, becoming a gathering place for Enlightenment thinkers and artists.

Italian immigrants later introduced ice cream to New York, and Spain saw its rise in the 17th century with the opening of horchaterías in the 19th. Today, Florence hosts Europe’s largest ice cream festival, honoring both Buontalenti and Ruggeri, an earlier innovator in frozen desserts.