Some people have all the luck — they either work for a bakery, for a candy store, or in the case of Noah Dan, for an ice cream business. Founder of Pitango Gelato, Dan freely chats about his teenaged summers in Trieste, Italy, with his Italian grandparents. “It was obligatory to eat gelato one or two times a day,” he explained. “There were many stores, but only one was the real place. In the old days, it was all from scratch with a secret recipe and hard work.”

Recalling those delicious summer days, Dan says that the owner of this particular gelato shop used the milk from his own cows, the eggs from his own hens and the fruits from his own garden. “Other places would buy ready-made [mixes],” he said.