The Gelato Girls March 20, 2008
Trio Gelato & Desserts is the culmination of years of dreaming and planning by three creative women bound by a common goal: to live independently and responsibly, and build a business that embraces the notion that care and love make for incredible quality. That handmade is better. Batch by batch, one at a time. Trio embraces the Italian traditions that gave gelato to the world, and turns them on their head: creating innovative and surprisingly good products emanating throughly American sensibilities.
Melanie Light
email: melanie (at) triogelato.com
Mel is the trio’s Jane-of-all-trades. She’s in charge of anything computer-based: from designing brochures and keeping up with our website, to building each recipe from scratch in her fancy excel spreadsheet. “It’s all very mathematical, a lot like baking. The proportions all have to be perfect.” She graduated from Stetson’s Honors Program in 2003 (with Jess), with a self-defined major in Creative Arts and a minor in Humanities, a degree that allowed her to virtually take any course she wanted to: literature, writing, singing, composition, photography, video, philosophy, and various other interesting things. In her former professional life, she’s worked for the Red Cross, been a middle school math teacher, the graduate advisor for the UIC Physics department, a supervisor at Glaze Under Fire, and a safari driver at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. She loves cool breezes, Barack Obama, traveling, Disney World, playing the devil’s advocate and games with her better half, Colin, and her favorite kitties Lucy and Harrison.
Jess Burbank
email: jess (at) triogelato.com
Jess brings to the trio a hugely bright smile, a charming face, and a cautiously optimistic outlook. She’s our PR specialist, our errand-runner, our networker, and our face in the community. Not to say her creativity in the kitchen is anything to sneeze at: some of our greatest successes come out of Jess’s uncanny ability to anticipate people’s flavor desires. All that, and she’s still always ready to get her apron dirty. She graduated from Stetson (with Mel) in 2003, with a degree in Humanities - an interdisciplinary program that illustrates her Libran indecisiveness and appreciation of beauty and communication: Art History, English Literature/Creative Writing, and Religion. Her professional life has included working with the Orlando Museum of Art and Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, happy times managing at Glaze Under Fire and being an Imagination Scientist at EPCOT. She loves writing, traveling, whimsy, creating handmade books and paper, reality TV, her puppy, Leela, her husband, Ben, and her baby on the way!
Melinda “Gramma” Park
email: melinda (at) triogelato.com
Gramma is the backbone of the trio; she makes sure that the kitchen is running smoothly. A former 8th grade Language Arts teacher at Lantana Middle School in southeast Florida, she is resilient, has boundless energy, and is an unbeatably determined character. This isn’t her first foray into entrepreneurial endeavors; she’s managed a private dental practice, owned a dental laboratory, run a dog kennel, and beyond busy work life, has raised children and grandchildren almost singlehandedly — all as an incredible single woman, out of an era relatively lacking in feminine independence. She’s kind of our hero. She loves the food network, dreaming about gardening, the Smoky Mountains, grocery shopping and doing laundry, her five kitties, and she kind of loves Jess’s dog, Leela, too.
These three women are the most creative people you will ever meet. Just when you think they have thought of the most amazing and surprizing gelato concoction, whoa, there they come with another one. All declicious and addictive. Their smiles are bright and the future in the business is even brighter. Go! Look for Trio Gelato in a market near you. You won’t be disappointed, until your cup is empty that is. But you can always ask for more!