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Hi, everyone. Welcome back to your favorite segment Global Village. 欢迎回来【小酒馆大世界】.

We have in our studio today, a new guest. 他就是来自料理级法式冰淇淋品牌【简法】Dlight 的Vincent. He'll be sharing with us his life stories and love of ice cream.

Welcome to the show, Vincent.

(French) I will translate and I will say simply I’m very happy to be with you.

Okay, good. So first of all, could you give us a very brief self-introduction？

Yes, my name is Vincent Giuge. I am French. I was born in Nice in 1971. And I arrived in Asia about 22 years ago.

Wow.

Yes. That's already quite a long time, 10 years in Vietnam and 12 years in China. I am now very happily married to a Chinese lady with whom I have a baby – Yangyang. I am expecting another kid, actually.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much. And basically I'm working for Dlight for the past 12 years since I arrived in China, because I became an investor of the company and I am basically in charge of the business development for 简法 for Dlight for the past 12 years.

Ah, I see. So basically throughout the 12 years in China, you have been devoting yourself in developing Dlight and being involved in the ice cream business. But how did you get into the ice cream business? Have you ever had any experience in the industry before?

Ah, it's an interesting question. Yes, I had a kind of experience, but it was a very long time ago. At that time, it was about 20 years before, when I was a very young man just after finishing my studies, I have been hired into the most famous ice cream parlor in Nice, which name is Fenocchio.

And this was a very, very famous ice cream parlor, in which even all the tourists - Italian tourists were going to eat ice cream. And it has been I would say my first contact with what we called very high-quality ice cream, because this parlor was constantly full, and I had the chance to taste excellent ice cream at that time.

Apart from that, what brought me to the ice cream business in China is a very peculiar experience. Basically, after 10 years of developing business for various company in Vietnam, I decided to become my own entrepreneur.

A friend of mine was one of the partners of Dlight in China. He proposed me - at that time I was looking for investment, I was looking to be partner into a business. And then he proposed me to analyze the business situation.

This is what I did, and I decided to change my life and to jump into this new experience because I was believing that their product was absolutely excellent.

Yeah, if there's anything that you wanna try to jump into, ice cream has got to be one of the sweetest industries to jump into.

Mentioning that, I've noticed that your brand Dlight is advertised as authentic French ice cream. So, I just want to ask what is authentic French ice cream. How is that different from, let's say, other types of ice cream?

OK, so it's a multi-dimensional question I would try to answer. First of all, why Dlight is calling this ice cream as an authentic French ice cream. It's because the DNA of this ice cream is made of French chef.

Basically, the initial partners of the company were French people together with Chinese people and they brought their knowledge of making this ice cream. So basically, the technical part of making ice cream is coming from the French side. That's one of the reasons.

The second reason about what is the main difference in between French ice cream and let's say all the ice cream, as you say.

First of all, I would like to compare French ice cream essentially to how cuisine ice cream, which is Italian ice cream, gelato.

Why do I want to make this comparison? Simply because Italian culture and French culture are extremely close. First of all, because of our borders and because of our historical influences, Italian for thousands of years have influenced us, have even invaded us when they were Romans, and basically something very important happened in the 15th centuries. One of our kings married a woman called Catherine de' Medici. And this princess was a lover of ice cream, and a lover of the first gelato.

Let me guess, she brought the recipe into France.

She brought the secret of gelato.

She didn't bring the recipe. She brought a chef. Because those princess - they had a lot of power, a lot of money. And in general, when they were traveling, they were not traveling alone. They were traveling with their suites. So basically she brought into a luggage, a chef. And this Italian chef basically brought the secret of gelato into France. This was in the 15th century that mean really the beginning of ice cream.

So the traditions, the French tradition of ice cream and the Italian tradition of ice cream are extremely close. The main difference existing in between a gelato and a French-made ice cream - I'm speaking about high-quality - will be that the French have a tendency to use the cream and sometimes a bit of butter, while the Italian will not use cream in the gelatos, they will use only milk.

So basically, French cream will be more creamier and a little bit fatter also, which is not always pleasing all the ladies. And gelato will be a little bit more leaner. We are speaking about a difference of few %, basically. So the main difference will be this in between a gelato of high quality and a French ice cream of quality.

Okay, and would you say that in general, people in France like ice cream？

Yes, ice cream is part of our tradition and I know very little people will not during summertime or and even during winter get tempted buying an ice cream in a parlor. Yes, the French people in general have a knack for ice cream. It's really part of our tradition. It's part of our desserts and we are using ice cream not only as a single portion. We are also using it with values composition, with different cakes and different – as components. So ice cream is really part of the tradition of eating dessert in France. Absolutely.

That's actually what I was going to ask. When you eat ice cream - is it more common for people to just eat scoops on its own? Or is it more like part of a dessert? If so, what type of popular French dessert that actually contains ice cream?

There is both actually. But in France we’ll be maybe a little bit more elaborate about when we are - for example making a cup of ice cream, we will always accompany it with values, different chocolate pieces or with some cakes and things like that. So, we will try to make what we call a composition. Or a sundae, the American will call it a sundae. We will accompany it with also with whipped cream or we will accompany it with meringue.

Ah, meringue.

Yes. When you ask me about a very famous dessert, which I would say meeting both cakes and ice cream, I will think, for example, of the Norwegian Omelette, which is a beautiful dessert, which is a kind of meringue fresh ice cream, meringue en flambé, which means that we will at the end put alcohol into it - and I will say - and flamed it.

Yeah, that sounds so elaborate, and so staged and theatrical. I believe, I think I’ve seen the type of ice cream desserts that you're talking about. I think a few weeks ago I was in a French restaurant in Beijing, they have that on their menu with the flame and everything. It's just so theatrical.

Ok, it’s Omelette Norwegian, yes? Was it good and because that's what is most important?

It was not just the taste was good but also just the presentation, it was the “Wow” factor.

Okay. And the other thing that I’m really curious about is when you go to different countries, obviously, people have their own preferences when it comes to taste, and what are some of the most popular flavors of ice cream in France? And how is it different from the Chinese market? I'm assuming they are lots of differences.

Yes, there is effectively a lot of differences. I will say basically that all the market in the world, the first flavors are always the same – vanilla and chocolate. Vanilla and chocolate are always the most popular flavor everywhere in the world.

Always the popular one.

Including China. So, in France, the preference for ice cream will be vanilla, chocolate, of course, but you will have also caramel.

Oh, caramel.

Which is a very particular flavor, caramel, pistachio, coffee will be flavor which are part of the top five flavor preferred in France. Then you will have lemon, mango, passionfruit, raspberry, strawberry, those kinds of flavors which are more fruity.

Ah, the fruity ones.

Yeah, I would say that on the Chinese markets there is main differences, basically on the fact that the Chinese interestingly will have very specific flavor on which they have liked, for example, durian.

Durian is a big hit in China, yeah.

It's a fantastic eat in China and I have to admit myself as a foreigner. It's a fantastic fruit. And it's a fantastic fruit to make ice cream. So basically, durian is a very good sell in China and will be more in the top five. While in France, you can imagine they will not eat that.

But the main difference is not there actually because Chinese market and other market are quite similar except maybe some flavors, like for example, ginger. Ginger is a flavor that we are selling very, very well, and ginger, yes, it will not be a first seller in France, but in China will be part of the very appreciated flavors. What is the most interesting and important difference is not about the flavors. It's about something more deep. It's about the fact that the Chinese market, in general, will have a preference for less sweet ice cream.

That I can imagine.

Yes, this is really one of the major factors and something on which we have worked considerably. And also the particularity is a difference in between European market and Chinese markets. The Chinese people are more into the creamy ice cream and they prefer ice creams than sorbet. The sorbet for them is less interesting. They have a knack for what is creamy, milky and they have a preference for this today.

Actually I think this is probably true, but I actually prefer the fruitier one, the more icy than creamy. But I, through talking with my friends in China, I think I’m the exception. They are more into the creamy things. When I say that I want something fruity, they're all like then why are you eating ice cream? Ice cream is supposed to be creamy.

Absolutely. But I think it's also a question of tradition. We have a much older tradition of eating sorbet, sorbetto in Italian - that mean we have our population in a certain kind which is used to eat those flavors, or I will say that this tendency will change with time in China too.

Especially because the sorbet is actually healthier. The sorbet is 0% fat and it's only made of fruit and water. So basically, I would say that sorbet will be developing in China in the future.

Yeah, can I just ask - because you keep mentioning sorbet - sorbet is that just the sort of the icy, like you said, not creamy, but more like the icy with fruity flavor. I was just gonna say that because the other day I was talking to an Italian friend and then they mentioned sorbet as well. It seems like in Italy a lot of the times sorbet, they use it between courses when they're having a meal, to use a tiny bit of sorbet to just cleanse their palate so that they are ready to eat the next course. So in France, is that not how sorbet is eaten, is it eaten as a separate dessert？

First of all, yes, we are also doing that. We are also effectively in the very elaborate meals. There is a whole tradition to serve a sorbet in between the course, especially I will say the lemon sorbet. Because lemon sorbet have - with the acidity and with its chains of taste will help to really clean the mouth. So yes. We are also practicing this kind of, I would say table practice, we have this kind of tradition.

But sorbet is also eating by itself as a complete treat, because it's absolutely wonderful. Now you're saying icy, I’m sorry, but actually, it's not the case.

A sorbet can be very voluptuous and can be even as rich or as a sensation to be as rich as an ice cream. In fact, what is making a sorbet being very voluptuous into your mouth is about the flesh of the fruit.

So you can imagine them when you are going to do a lemon sorbet. And when you're going to do a mango sorbet, the structure is not going to do at all the same. The lemon sorbet will be more coarsy and icy, while the mango sorbet will be much more smooth into your mouth.

Ah, is that why they mostly just use lemon sorbet through… to cleanse your palette. But if it's served as a dessert, they can use all sorts of fruits.

You can use a lot of fruit. Actually, you can do sorbet with all the kind of fruits existing in the world. Absolutely.

Wow. You're making my mouth water. I just think imagining the voluptuous sorbet as you call them.

Yes, I’m sure that after this interview I will make sure to pass some of our sorbet for you to understand what I am speaking about.