“I joined Singapore Airlines with the goal of exploring gelato all over the world,” says ex-air stewardess Celine Ho. The bubbly 27-year-old is the proud owner of Celine’s Gelato cafe in Novena, which opened late August.

Celine’s love for gelato started in 2010 when she was 17, working at local gelato cafe franchise Gelatissimo part-time as she was completing her diploma at PSB Academy. “During my time there, I learnt how to make and scoop gelato. The process of mixing and churning the gelato is very satisfying — slowly, I began to fall in love with it,” she shares.

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After graduating with a diploma in tourism and hospitality management in 2012, Celine became a cafe manager for the next three years. “It has always been my dream to be an entrepreneur. I’ve been telling my friends and family since I was young that my dream is to open my own cafe one day,” she said.

In 2015, Celine joined Singapore Airlines as an air stewardess. “[Exploring gelato in other countries] was my motivation for flying.” Celine spent the next five years flying, while running an events-based gelato cart business on her off-days (more on that below).

“The best gelato I ever tasted was in Milan. From that experience, I was inspired to explore further and create 'art', using gelato as a canvas,” says Celine. She adds that she enjoyed flying with Singapore Airlines, up till when she left in 2020.

In the second half of 2019, Celine decided to figure out how to turn the dream of opening her own gelato cafe into reality. She reached out to her older sister, Celestine, now her biz partner, for advice.

“After Celine shared her idea with me, I thought that setting up a gelato cart — rather than a physical store — would be the best fit for her, said Celestine. The 31-year-old added that since her sister was still flying, coupled with the fact that it was her first step towards being an entrepreneur, setting up an events-based business would allow Celine to minimise her risks while allowing her to be as involved in the business.

In September that year, Celine’s Gelato Cart was officially up and running — appearing at events such as weddings, corporate functions, as well as a particularly memorable Christmas market event at an international school (above pic).

Besides Celestine, her boyfriend Alvin Lin, 28, also came onboard the Celine’s Gelato Cart team. Together, the trio share the load of running the business. With the team handling one to two events a week, Celestine and Alvin — both financial planners with flexible schedules — would stand in for her Celine when the latter was flying.

Celine decided to leave Singapore Airlines in March this year, in order to pursue her passion full-time. However, shortly after, the circuit breaker began in April.

“Our greatest challenge during this pandemic was having all our events for the year cancelled,” says Celine. The moment the circuit breaker was announced, Celine, Alvin and Celestine scrambled to adapt their business model.

“The moment we got wind that all foreseeable events would be cancelled, we made taking business online our top priority,” says Alvin. “It’s a good thing we acted fast — within the first one to two weeks of circuit breaker, we were able to start our home deliveries right away.” According to Alvin, the business was doing surprisingly well during the circuit breaker — making almost as much as they were pre-pandemic.

Celine chimes in: “We still wanted to align ourselves with what we were doing before the circuit breaker, which was being present at events.” As such, companies that had previously hired Celine’s Gelato Cart for live events started commissioning them to deliver gelato to their employees’ homes during the circuit breaker — a “morale booster”, of sorts. “It was really heartening to see companies providing their employees with small joys in such a time,” says Celine.

Post-circuit breaker, the team realised that they would have to re-adapt in order to keep the gelato business thriving. “Sales from home delivery were dropping, and our live events for the year were still cancelled,” says Alvin. “So we decided that perhaps now was the time to go back to what Celine originally envisioned — to open a physical gelato cafe.” At the end of August, Celine’s Gelato in Novena Regency was soft-launched.

“We were definitely concerned about setting up shop during a pandemic, but we were more concerned with how COVID-19 had impacted our original events-centric business model. So we did some calculations and decided to move forward with this calculated risk,” shares Celine.

She handles gelato production and the day-to-day running of the cafe, while Celestine and Alvin handle finances and marketing respectively.

Hidden inside Novena Regency, Celine’s Gelato is a small, minimalist space. The trio had the clever idea of turning Celine’s cart into a makeshift counter for the shop. The gelato is all stored in traditional Italian carapina stainless steel containers slotted into the countertop, which remain covered with cone-shaped metal lids.

This old-school Italian method of storing gelato, called pozzetti (small water wells, in reference to the appearance of the containers), is considered one of the best ways to preserve the flavors in gelato — it reduces oxidation, prevents cross-contamination and keeps the gelato temperatures stable.

The cart can only hold six flavors at a time, but Celine keeps extra flavors on hand at the back and will swap out the metal gelato containers upon customers’ request.

In terms of dine-in space, there are only two tables located outside the shop, seating three to five people each.

The menu at Celine’s Gelato is simple — six to eight types of gelato, fresh waffles and milkshakes, as well as coffee and tea. Celine makes the gelato from scratch herself using a machine, at their Ubi central kitchen, about once a week — sometimes more, if a corporate client requests for a bulk order.

“Gelato is best eaten as fresh as possible, and we don’t use any preservatives,” she says. Though she churns her own gelato for the store, Celine does consult with an Italian chef on her gelato recipes — she won’t disclose much, except that the chef has over 15 years of gelato-making experience.

Classic flavours are priced at $5 with a top up of $2.50 per extra scoop, while premium flavors are priced at $5.50 with a top up of $3 per extra scoop. There’s no limit to the number of extra scoops you can add on, so if you come in a group, you’re in luck. Pints are available for takeaway as well, for $16.90 and $19.90 for Classic and Premium flavors respectively.

Ice cream is wonderful — but gelato? Arguably better. The Italian frozen dessert contains less air and has a softer, denser texture compared to ice cream. And high-quality gelato boasts a wonderful mouthfeel, while delivering lots of flavour (it actually has less fat too — about 4%, compared to ice-cream’s 10%).

Incredibly rich and fragrant, with a dense, luscious texture. We’ve tried many pistachio ice creams in the past, but most fail to highlight the roasty, umami characteristics of the nut. This, on the other hand, has just the right balance of savouriness and creaminess from freshly-ground pistachios. So good, we got a pint to go.

As a nod to Singaporeans’ obsession with all things durian, Celine and her team decided that a durian flavor was a must on their menu. Made from fresh D24 durian (chosen for its consistent quality and availability throughout the seasons) sourced from a fruit supplier, the durian gelato is surprisingly not too jelak. Creamy, sweet and just slightly pungent, with a lingering aftertaste.

Another one of their best-sellers, this has a mellow chocolate body with a buttery hazelnut finish, accompanied with tiny bits of chopped toasted hazelnut for crunch. With its Ferrero Rocher-esque flavour profile, this is good, though a little too sweet for us.

One of their dairy-free flavors, the Strawberry Sorbet is made with fresh homemade strawberry puree, which gives the smooth sorbet a pleasant crunchy texture and a bright tartness. Refreshing.

We got the Black Sesame Gelato to go with the Waffles, for an extra $2. Celine roasts and grinds the black sesame seeds into a paste, before incorporating it into the gelato base. After a phenomenal experience trying Gomaya Kuki’s “world’s richest black sesame ice cream” in Japan, many of the black sesame ice creams and gelato we’ve had since have paled in comparison — either too sweet, too weak or both.

However, this Black Sesame Gelato turns out to be exceptional. Wonderfully roasty and earthy, with the fine specks of ground black sesame visible throughout the gelato. Yummy paired with the crisp, buttery waffles. We also added Dark Chocolate Shavings for $1, which to our pleasant surprise, are shaved from a block of Lindt dark choc by hand at our table. Celine was inspired by a gelato cafe she encountered in London, which offered the same style of chocolate shavings. The black sesame gelato overpowers the chocol shavings a little, though it adds a nice bittersweet finish to round off the seeds’ earthiness. This might work better with a more neutral flavor like the Chocolate Hazelnut or Pistachio.

Good, artisanal gelato. Even though the price per scoop is a little bit steep, we’d return for more if we’re ever in the area.

Celine’s Gelato is at #01-30, 275 Novena Regency, Thomson Rd, S307645. Open Mon to Sat 10am - 8pm. Tel: 90688961. celinegelatocart.wixsite.com/singapore/about​​​​​​​

Photos: Alvin Teo