Gelato Showcase — Vetrina Setup, Temperature and Lighting
Table of contents
A gelato showcase (vetrina) is the refrigerated display case that holds finished gelato at -14 °C while preserving the ice-crystal structure built during mantecazione. Run it 3 °C too warm and texture collapses in a single shift. Lighting and humidity matter as much as the setpoint.
The vetrina is the only piece of equipment in a gelato lab that the customer ever sees.
What a Gelato Showcase Actually Does
The showcase is a counter-height refrigerated cabinet that holds 12, 16, 20 or 24 standard gelato pans (carapina, 360 × 250 × 120 mm) at the temperature where artisan gelato scoops cleanly with a spatola — between -14 °C and -11 °C at the surface, with a cooler pan core. It is not a freezer. A freezer at -18 °C makes gelato unscoopable; the vetrina is calibrated for service.
Three things happen inside the cabinet at the same time:
1. Cold air recirculation at -14 to -16 °C, blown over a finned evaporator and across the back of every pan. The fan is the difference between an even -14 °C across all pans and a 4 °C delta from corner to corner.
2. Anti-condensation glass control. The curved or flat glass front is double- or triple-glazed, often electrically heated at 5-15 W/m² to keep the inner surface above the ambient dew point. Without it, fog blocks the customer's view by 11 a.m. on a humid day.
3. Active humidification in some premium models — a small atomizer keeps the cabinet around 80% relative humidity to prevent surface dehydration of the pans, which manifests as a glassy, sun-bleached top layer.
A well-tuned vetrina holds every pan within a 1 °C band — corner to centre.
Showcase Architecture — Three Families
Quick reference. Ventilated = forced air, even temperature, fastest pull-down. Static = natural convection, gentlest on surface, only good for low-throughput shops. Pozzetti = sealed cylindrical wells under a metal lid, traditional Sicilian style, best for keeping gelato out of the light.
Figure 1 — the three temperature bands a vetrina has to balance: storage, display, and serving.
Ventilated cabinets
The default for modern gelaterie. A circulating fan keeps every pan within roughly ±0.5 °C of the setpoint. Pull-down is fast, recovery after a busy hour is fast, and the case can hold 24 flavours without a temperature gradient. The downside is air movement dries the surface unless humidity is actively controlled.
Static (gravity) cabinets
No fan. Cold air sinks naturally, warm air rises. Gentler on the gelato surface — no forced evaporation — but pull-down is slow and corner pans run 2-4 °C warmer than centre pans. Acceptable for shops with 8-12 flavours and rapid turnover; not for 24-flavour displays.
Pozzetti
The original Sicilian design. Each flavour sits in its own insulated cylindrical well with a heavy metal lid. No glass front, so gelato never sees light or warm air. Texture lasts longer, but customers must trust your flavour names — they cannot see the colour. A traditional choice making a comeback in third-wave gelaterie.
Temperature Set Points That Work
The temperature you read on the front display is not the temperature the customer experiences. Three relevant numbers:
| Reading | Where | Target | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setpoint | front panel | -14 °C | what the controller targets |
| Air | rear sensor | -15 to -13 °C | what the evaporator delivers |
| Pan surface | top 2 mm | -12 to -11 °C | what the spatola hits |
In summer, lower the setpoint by 2 °C. The cabinet works harder against the door-opening rate and the higher dew point. In winter, you can run 1 °C warmer and serve a softer, more aromatic gelato. Sorbets sit 1-2 °C colder than dairy gelato because their lower fat content makes them harder to scoop at the same temperature — see why is my gelato too hard for the full mechanics.
For storage of finished pans not yet on display, you need a separate freezer at -22 to -25 °C — the vetrina is a service cabinet, not a backstock freezer. That role belongs to the blast chiller for hardening and a dedicated pozzo for hold.
Lighting — The Detail Most Shops Get Wrong
Showcase lighting is judged on three numbers:
- Colour temperature. 4000 K neutral white. Warmer than that yellows the pistachio; cooler than that turns strawberry blue.
- CRI (Colour Rendering Index). 90 or higher. Below 90 the saturated reds and greens look muddy; the customer reads "old" before tasting anything.
- Wattage. 8-12 W per metre of pan rail. More than 15 W/m² heats the surface enough to start melting in still air.
LED strips spec'd for refrigerated display are widely available from Italian commercial suppliers. Avoid generic kitchen LED — its CRI is usually 70-80 and dries the gelato visually before anyone tastes it.
The spatola hits the gelato at -11 to -12 °C — anything colder cracks the surface, anything warmer pulls strings.
Sizing — Pan Count vs. Daily Sell-Through
A common heuristic: each pan holds 5 kg of gelato and ought to sell through in two days at peak season. Do the math from your daily kg and you arrive at a pan count.
- 8-12 pans → boutique shop, 10-25 kg/day
- 16-20 pans → standard gelateria, 30-60 kg/day
- 24-30 pans → flagship or summer hotspot, 60-120 kg/day
Oversize and pans sit too long. Three days at -14 °C is the practical limit; past that the surface starts losing aroma even with humidity control. Match flavour count to footfall, not ambition.
Related Concepts
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