be GELATO, a frozen-dessert lab operated by KIBO Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Koto City, Tokyo; President: Yuki Shinagawa) in Tokyo's Morishita neighborhood, is opening "Open Lab | Gelato Shave" for four days — September 19 (Saturday), 20 (Sunday), 26 (Saturday), and 27 (Sunday), 2026 — around the theme of Nordic food culture.
Gelato Shave is be GELATO's own dessert format, designed to bring together Japanese shaved ice and Italian gelato as a single creation. For September, the lab is offering two versions inspired by the coffee-and-spice pairings enjoyed across the Nordic countries and by the forest berries, honey, and rhubarb found in Finland.
Rather than recreating a culture directly, the lab translates it into coldness, contrasts in temperature, aroma, texture, and the time it takes to melt — proposing a new dessert experience where Japanese and Nordic food cultures meet, from a small frozen-dessert lab in Tokyo's Morishita.
Highlights
- The two flavors draw on two threads of Nordic food culture: the Scandinavian custom of gathering around coffee and something sweet, and Finland's culture of forest berries.
- Rather than imitating the cuisine or culture directly, each is reconstructed as a frozen dessert through temperature, aroma, texture, the way it melts, and the order in which it's eaten.
- Each dessert pairs Japanese shaved ice with gelato served at a slightly softer temperature, designed so the flavor comes together more fully with every spoonful.
- The desserts are designed by Chef Naohiro Akiyama, who has spent more than 30 years in French cuisine and product development. They are available for four days only in September 2026.
A Cold Dessert as a Window Into Another Culture
What comes to mind at the words "Nordic food culture"? Time spent enjoying something sweet alongside coffee. Baked goods flavored with spices such as cardamom. Bilberries and lingonberries gathered in the forest, the thick, berry-based dessert soup known as kiisseli, and the plain, distinct flavors of rhubarb and honey. The Nordic countries have built a range of food traditions around a harsh climate and the turning of the seasons.
For this project, be GELATO was not aiming to faithfully recreate any single dish. Instead, the lab looked at why certain ingredients are used in a particular place, and the kind of time in which they are traditionally enjoyed — reading the culture and memory behind the food, then translating it into a new frozen-dessert structure that combines Japan's shaved ice with Italian gelato.
When Japanese Shaved Ice Meets the Nordic World
Japan has a long tradition of shaving ice to cool off during the hot season. Italy has gelato, built around enjoying the aroma and flavor of ingredients at just the right temperature for each. Gelato Shave is be GELATO's own frozen dessert that brings these two traditions together as a single structure.
Softly shaved ice forms the base, layered with gelato, fruit, herbs, spices, sauces, and jellies — elements that differ in both temperature and texture. The moment it's served isn't the finished product. With every spoonful, the ice melts a little more, the gelato softens, and the syrup, fruit, and aroma begin to mix together. The boundaries between flavors that start out separate gradually disappear as you eat. The dessert comes together, spoonful by spoonful, in the hands of the person eating it — that idea is the design principle behind Gelato Shave.
MENU
Caramel & Coffee
¥1,600 (tax included)
Inspired by the Nordic custom of gathering around coffee and something sweet, this dessert reconstructs coffee, caramel, and cardamom as a single frozen creation.
Softly shaved ice is layered with two caramel syrups of different sweetness, then topped with rich vanilla gelato and coffee gelato. The bitter caramel is accented with cardamom, and beneath the ice sits a jelly made from unsweetened, light-roast coffee. On top are caramelized apple, a cardamom-scented crumble, and a thin coffee tuile.
The first taste is the mellow sweetness of vanilla and caramel. As you eat further, the bright bitterness of the light-roast coffee emerges from beneath the ice, and cardamom's refreshing aroma ties the whole dessert together — moving from dessert, to coffee, to a flavor where the two mix together. It's a way of reimagining "time spent enjoying coffee and something sweet together" through temperature and melting.
Composition: caramel syrup / bitter caramel syrup / vanilla gelato / coffee gelato / unsweetened light-roast coffee jelly / caramelized apple / cardamom crumble / coffee tuile
Forest Berry & Honey
¥1,600 (tax included)
A sweet-tart, refreshing dessert inspired by the berries found in Finland's forests and the thick kiisseli made by simmering them.
Fruits grouped together simply as "berries" each carry their own acidity, sweetness, and aroma. Rather than blending several berries into one flavor from the start, this dessert keeps them at different temperatures and states, letting each appear in turn as you eat.
At the base of the ice is a smooth berry kiisseli. The softly shaved ice above is layered with strawberry and bilberry syrups, with rich bilberry gelato tucked inside. It's finished with a tart cassis granita and a gently sweet honey gelato. On top are a mint-scented rhubarb confiture, bee pollen gathered by honeybees, and a thin berry tuile.
The soft sweet-tartness of strawberry. The deep fruitiness of bilberry. The distinct acidity of cassis. The mellow sweetness of honey. The refreshing aroma of rhubarb and mint. A different berry appears with each bite, until the ice, gelato, and kiisseli mix together into a single dessert of the forest.
Composition: kiisseli / bilberry gelato / honey gelato / bee pollen / bilberry syrup / strawberry syrup / cassis granita / rhubarb confiture / genoise / berry tuile
Translating the Ideas Behind Nordic Food, Not Recreating the Dishes
Neither of this month's two flavors is a direct recreation of Swedish or Finnish cooking. be GELATO isn't aiming to give overseas dishes a Japanese-style twist, or simply to combine unusual ingredients. Instead, the lab looks for the underlying structure within a culture: valuing the time spent enjoying coffee and something sweet together, rather than separately; enjoying the differences among the many fruits that grow in a forest rather than treating them as a single "berry"; and treating flavors passed down through preserved and home-style cooking as a form of seasonal memory. These ideas are then translated into coldness, aroma, texture, shape, and the order in which the dessert is eaten, reconstructed as something that can be experienced in present-day Tokyo.
Through a single frozen dessert, be GELATO hopes to spark an interest in food cultures from a distant part of the world — and for this Open Lab to become a small opening for new curiosity and dialogue between Japan and the Nordic countries.
The Chef Behind Gelato Shave — Naohiro Akiyama
Executive Chef, KIBO Co., Ltd.
Born in 1973. After culinary school, Akiyama joined the Ginza French restaurant Paris no Asaichi (パリの朝市), and later trained at Aoyama's KANSEI and the classic French restaurant Le Pot-au-Feu (ル・ポトフ).
In 2001, he joined Aux amis de vin, taking part in launching Ginza's Vin Pickle (ヴァンピックル) and the Marunouchi Building's Aux amis Tokyo (オザミトーキョー), where he worked as chef on menu development and store operations.
He went on to serve as chef at Les Ailes Vertes and Bistrot Marcassin, visiting producers around Japan and cooking with regional ingredients.
In 2012, he joined DEAN & DELUCA, where — after roles overseeing stores and training cooks — he worked as a product development chef on menu development, joint development with companies, and turning regional ingredients into products.
He is now Executive Chef at KIBO Co., Ltd., where he applies the compositional skills he built in cooking to frozen desserts, researching and developing ways to express regional ingredients and world food cultures as new eating experiences.
"Simply making a dish or a culture cold doesn't create a new experience on its own. What defines that flavor — is it the aroma, the temperature, the texture, or the time spent with someone? I take it apart once, then rebuild it as a frozen dessert. This time, I thought about how to bring the experience of enjoying coffee with something sweet, and the many different flavors of berries found in a forest, into a single dessert."
— Naohiro Akiyama
About be GELATO
Beyond Gelato — going beyond gelato to open up what frozen desserts can be.
be GELATO is a research-lab-style gelato brand exploring new eating experiences through frozen desserts. Rather than chasing unusual ingredients or unexpected combinations, it focuses on rethinking familiar ingredients, flavors, dishes, and cultures through coldness, the way something melts, contrasts in temperature, aroma, texture, shape, and the order in which it's eaten — working from the idea that "food is still interesting when you look at what you already know from an angle you don't."
Alongside its regular work in gelato wholesale and product development, be GELATO holds "Open Lab" at its dessert lab in Tokyo's Morishita, setting a different theme each month and opening its experiments — turning regional ingredients and world food cultures into frozen desserts — to the public.
Event Details
Event name: Open Lab | Gelato Shave
Dates: September 19 (Saturday), 20 (Sunday), 26 (Saturday), and 27 (Sunday), 2026, 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM each day
Venue: be GELATO, 3-6-7 Shin-Ohashi, Koto City, Tokyo — a 2-minute walk from Morishita Station on the Toei Shinjuku and Toei Oedo lines
Menu:
- Caramel & Coffee — ¥1,600 (tax included)
- Forest Berry & Honey — ¥1,600 (tax included)
Reservations: Seats at the table are reserved through be GELATO's official LINE account. The standing high-counter seats are available without a reservation.
Official LINE: https://lin.ee/1lGAPCQ
Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/be.gelato/
