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Giuliani was one of only two Canadian gelato makers (the other is from Calgary) selected to be one of 16 finalists at the competition, culled from about 1,500 applications from North and South America.

After three days of churning and scooping in high heat and humidity, Giuliani learned that she had come third, entitling her to represent Canada at a world competition in Rimini, Italy, in January.

“I’m terrified,” she said Wednesday. “It’s one thing to make your gelato at home, where everyone loves you, but to be on the world stage … it’s to put yourself front and centre and be vulnerable.” First place was won by a gelato maker from Colombia; second place by one from Chicago.

Gelato making is clearly an art. Giuliani, the Ottawa-born graduate of a Carpigiani Gelato University in Italy, who opened Stella Luna in Old Ottawa South five years ago, started experimenting with her award-winning recipe in March, when she first heard that the Gelato World Tour would be coming to Chicago.

“I knew that I wanted to use our chocolate base recipe. It’s very particular, from a 100-year-old Venetian recipe I got from one of my instructors in Italy.” She also knew that she wanted to add a ribbon of chocolate ganache “for complexity of flavour” and pecans roasted in local maple syrup and topped with a pinch of Maldon salt “for crunch.” The trick came in adding the 47-per-cent bourbon, from an artisan family distillery in Chicago.

“It’s very difficult working with alcohol,” says Giuliani. “It lowers the freezing point, so then you’re trying to correct to get the right consistency and structure. It was add half an ounce, then adjust the amount the cream, but add too much cream, and it gets flaky. We probably made 20 or 25 different variations.”