James Coleridge has climbed to the peak of some of the worlds tallest mountains, defying death in an oxygen-starved, hostile environment.
He has helped a brother who is blind see the world in a whole new way.
He makes sure that each of the 86,400 seconds we have in a day is filled with as much vibrancy as he can muster rather than watch life pass him by day by day.
He values each breath, each view, each moment he has been given.
Its in all of us to do the same, he says.
Its not quite the conversation one expects to have at Bella Gelateria, Coleridges thriving gelato business at the corner of Cordova and Burrard. But its the message our three-time Best in the City gelato winner most wants to share.
Dare yourself to fail. Dont be comfortable with normal. Have a quest to be great. Dare to dream big dreams, he says, trying to turn the interviewers questions away from his success and more towards the potential that each and every one of us has to reach such heights.
This is the gospel according to the Father of Gelato Pioneers and hes using Bella Gelateria to spread the word with each divine mouthful.
Im the messenger, he says. The message was crafted a long time ago. Its about protecting the integrity of Italys gift to the world.
The interview took place on October 31. Three years, 10 months and five days ago, I clicked an online button for a gelato school in Italy, he says. His approach to his new venture was a lot like his approach to mountain climbing. (If you go to the Royal Canadian Geographic Societys webpage, thats him waving a Canadian flag atop our highest mountain.)
When you climb a mountain, you plan, you prepare, you map out your route, you gather a team, he says of why he decided to study at the Gelato University in Italy yes, there is such a place rather than just buy some equipment and start making gelato. Business is like that. I was very well prepared for this industry.
Part of it is his naturally competitive spirit. Hes lucky to have the physical ability and natural energy that allow him to push his limits but its the mental challenge of figuring out how to become the best that he thrives on.
He started life on a Canadian Armed Forces base in Germany. He has two older brothers, with a six-year gap, and then theres another brother whos just 17 months younger. That brother was born blind so young James became his seeing eye dog. They did everything together as their Air Force father made the world their home. Everything except help his mother in the kitchen, which was James domain alone. Love is a really good word in our family, he says of his upbringing and how it molded him.
Growing up he ate a lot of bad ice cream, he says. But he believes that bad is a force for good: The only way we understand good is when we try bad.
Likewise, there is a place for cheap in this world, he says. Its just not at Bella Gelateria.
He doubts he could have had the from-day-one success in any city other than Vancouver. Its one of the most culinary capitals of the world, he says. We embrace our multiculturalism and diversity. Our influences come from around the world. Being an Italian gelato champion in Canada, its about this city, not me.
On any given summer day, Bella Gelateria will serve up to 3,000 people, making it the second busiest gelato store in the world. Coleridge used to worry when the line-up would snake all the way to the convention centre; now, when customers patience is rewarded with each addictive mouthful, he takes their silent contemplation of the rich, creamy confluence of flavours as a benediction. (Its hard not to use religious terminology when referring to his gelato.)
This single location can go through 500 litres of milk a day. (His favourite supplier is Avalon.) Only in Vancouver would people support someone who spends $35 a kilo on 99 per cent chocolate and searches out the sweetest, ripest fruit only when its in season. Its about a relationship with a city that understands food, he says.
Given how he sticks to his principles of only the best, freshest products and using traditional methods to make gelato, he sees himself as a custodian of an old-world product, protecting it in an industrialized world of faster, cheaper.
Do not underestimate how much attention Vancouvers gelato scene is getting, he says. Not only is there his success hes attained maestro gelatiere status, won top awards at the Firenze Gelato Festival and is the only person in the world who has the Father title bestowed upon him but with 35 gelato stores in the Lower Mainland, were known as a place that takes gelato seriously.
I have a big quest in front of me and Ive just started, he says, hinting at some important announcements to come next spring.
Asked about his next goal, he says, I will be at this for a while. I have a whole world to dominate."
