Dunedin gelato makers get their first taste of sweet success at national awards

Anything goes when it comes to making gelato — from vanilla, to sauerkraut, salmon, bacon and even a splash of alcohol. It is that playfulness and fearlessness of mixing things up now and then that has won Blue Cockatoo Dessert Bar gelato-maker Hannes Bareiter and business co-owner and wife Melanie Hartmann six awards at the 2026 New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards. The Dunedin dessert bar won a Sensient Technologies Gelato gold medal for its salted pistachio cremino. If you are wondering what a cremino is, it is a cube-shaped Italian chocolate, composed of three layers — the outer layers are made with a mix of hazelnut chocolate, and the inner layer is typically made with either coffee, lemon or hazelnut paste. In the award winning gelato, it has salted pistachio in it. Blue Cockatoo also won an RD2 International Best of Fusion gold medal for its fried walnut, miso caramel and Gisborne yuzu gelato. Again, if you are wondering what a yuzu is, it is a citrus fruit from Asia, and it tastes like a sharp, fragrant mix of tart lemon, sweet mandarin orange and slightly bitter grapefruit, with a strong floral smell like honeysuckle. The couple also won Sensient Technologies silver medals with their boysenberry apple crumble gelato, their mango lychee coconut gelato and their strawberries and cream gelato, as well as a bronze medal with their Catlins hazelnut and milk chocolate gelato. Mr Bareiter said he had been making gelato for about 25 years, but it was only in small amounts for guests at his restaurants, which most recently included Tītī, at St Clair Beach. Then nine months ago, the couple decided to sell their restaurant and open Blue Cockatoo, where he started making gelato in much larger quantities for the general public. Surprisingly, Mr Bareiter said he had never won awards for his gelato before. “It was our first time entering and we just thought we’d enter for fun, just to see what the feedback from other people would be like.” They wanted to see how their gelato stacked up against other producers around the country. “It was quite nice to see instantly. I’m pretty happy with the results. “I’m stoked — especially with the fried walnut, miso caramel and yuzu. Making that was quite a wild game. “I did a lot of trials on that one, to get the balance right, and I added the yuzu at the last minute as well, just to take it to another level. “I was worried that it might be a bit too much for some, so I was quite happy to get the gold medal for that one. “And the pistachio was my personal favourite flavour. So it was quite good to get a gold for that as well.” An overall winner from each category would be announced in the next couple of weeks, and he was waiting with “creamy breath” to see if one of his gold medal gelatos would be named an overall winner, he said. john.lewis@odt.co.nz