Chef Summer Galvis got her start in fine dining, and it shows.
Her vegan Wild Island Gelato is always topped with something special—dried coconut, homemade chocolate truffles or chocolate and caramel syrups. You might be surprised to pick up an 8-ounce container of Ojai Orange Blossom at your local market and find it garnished with dried orange blossoms and dehydrated orange slices. But for Galvis, the artistry is in the details.
“Just like in fine dining, where you decorate the plate, I feel like the gelato is not complete until it has something representative of the flavor on top,” says Galvis.
Galvis is the chef and creator behind Wild Island Gelato, which she owns with her husband, David. The couple and their three children lived for several years in Hawaii, where Galvis grew up. They made and sold vegan cookies at a farmers market there.
Their island experience, and the prevailing health food culture in Hawaii, influenced Galvis’s experiments in the kitchen even after the family moved to Maine. Another motivation was her oldest daughter’s dietary restrictions.
Kelsey has global developmental delays and some lactose intolerance.
“I really made the gelato for her,” says Galvis.
One day the family came home from a shopping trip with an abundance of chocolate and wondered what to do with it all.
“I said, ‘Well, I have a taste for chocolate ice cream,’” says Galvis. And she wanted Kelsey to share in the summer treat. In an ah-ha! moment, they bought a small gelato machine and started making nondairy gelato and sorbetto.
Wild Island Gelato was born. Galvis experimented with flavors, sourcing local ingredients, including fruits and other vitamin-rich foods.
When the family moved to Stevensville, MI, in the winter of 2019, they brought the business with them. Now Wild Island operates out of a commercial kitchen in an Amish-built shed.
And they’re really serious about sourcing locally. Galvis has used Michigan cherries, strawberries and dehydrated apples in her gelato and has sweetened it with Indiana and Michigan maple syrup. She is even working on a flavor using merlot, which she plans to source from one of lower Michigan’s many wineries.
Her ingenuity has resulted in flavors such as Cosmic Cold Brew, Limoncello Thyme, Strawberry Basil and Caribbean Piña Colada.
Wild Island flavors are unique and proprietary. Galvis puts her heart into the creation of each batch, a three-day process. Her gelato contains no refined sugars, stabilizers, additives or gums. She uses coconut or cashew milk in place of dairy. She makes the plant-based milks herself.
“I love including immune-boosting ingredients. I want it to be like a tonic,” says Galvis.
Wild Island Gelato has premiered at several Michiana stores and markets, including Purple Porch Co-op and Bamber’s Superette Food Market in South Bend, IN, and Garden Patch Market in Mishawaka, IN. Wild Island also takes special orders for parties and weddings. They are at the St. Joseph and Bridgman, MI, farmers markets this summer.
Galvis is happy with the reception Wild Island Gelato has received and feels passionate about working with nourishing ingredients. She credits nature with giving her the right materials.
“God and nature—I believe they are the same—have made so many amazing natural flavors. The job of people that work with food is to bring the flavors that are available ... to the right person in the right amount.”
info@wildislandgelato.com
WildIsland.kitchen
269-921-0865
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