Eat Cannoli: Gluten-free Italian dessert in Preston

The name says it all at this dessert haven in Melbourne’s north, which has recently gone gluten-free. Now at a permanent location, the cafe and cannoli bar’s recipe for success is better than ever. Here’s where you can taste the delicacies.

Kate and Dom Marzano are using a new gluten-free recipe for their cannoli shells at their cafe, Eat Cannoli in Preston. Picture: Mark Dadswell

Old school knowledge meets new age flair at Eat Cannoli as the popular dessert business turns gluten-free.

Dom Marzano has 20 years experience as an Italian chef but when it comes to the cannoli, he’s all about experimentation.

Coming from an Italian family, Mr Marzano said there was no chance he would take ricotta off the menu but his activated charcoal shells and New York cheesecake filling aren’t exactly by the book.

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“It’s all about the aesthetics and having a bit of fun with it,” he said.

Mr Marzano and wife Kate Marzano workshopped the gluten-free shell for about two months before landing the perfect recipe.

And then they decided it was better than the original.

Now, they’re 100 per cent gluten-free.

It took two months of trial and error but owner Dom Marzano is confident his gluten-free shells are better than the original.

In a new home on Wood St, Preston they get their flour from a wholesaler next door, honey from bees at their Pascoe Vale home, and fruit from neighbours down the road.

“They all have a fruit tree in the backyard and they don’t know what to do with it,” Mr Marzano said.

“So we say come in and we’ll trade you for it.”

Buckets of plums and apricots have been traded for coffee and cannoli in what Mr Marzano calls his ‘backyard project’.

After cooking for Italian icons such as Grossi Florentino, Mr Marzano started making cannoli to advertise his catering business.

“But people only wanted the cannoli,” he said.

They cater events and act as a food truck from their renovated caravan trailer and moved into their premises in December last year.

And the dessert keeps flying out the door.

For more information visit their website.

@richardapearce

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