Shortlisted for the 2017 Jane Grigson Trust Award In a small converted greengrocers in south London (her ice cream shed), Kitty Travers is patiently creating an array of iced delights - fresh ice creams that taste of the real, whole fruits; hand-made choc ices that crack open to reveal layers of playful pastel-coloured flavours you didn't even know existed; juice-drenched granitas to be stuffed into brioche buns with fresh cream; and eye-popping, palate-tickling sorbets that will enliven the taste buds of all those lucky enough to sample them. This is the culmination of the years of work and research that has made La Grotta Ices. A life-long ice cream enthusiast, Kitty got her training in New York, after which she worked with Mario Batali at Otto before returning to London as a pastry chef. She spent five years at St John, before buying an old Piaggio Ape and setting up La Grotta in 2008 . Throughout these years, every spare moment she had was used for travel and exploration - from France, Sicily, Rome and Naples to Iceland, Istanbul and Brazil. The sunlit flavours and far-flung traditions of these places pervade Kitty's ice creams, as well as her ultimate inspiration: nature. La Grotta Ices captures the flavour of the purest and most delicious offerings available to us, unsullied by additives or faddy substitutes . From ripe seasonal fruits to perfumed herbs and foraged blossoms, La Grotta encourages you to find that fragrant lemon verbena bush hiding behind a bus station, or notice the flourishing fig tree in a public park.

Now Kitty's recipes are available to you. La Grotta Ices offers over 100 inventive flavours, each perfected over years of experimentation and testing, that demonstrate the true artistry of real ice cream, sorbet and granita.