More about us
Updated: Aug 21, 2020
Our legacy
“138 years ago, my great great-grandfather, Bortolo Belfi crafted our family’s very first ice-cream.”
Generation after generation the legacy continued until it was my father’s gift to share. My father Miguel Belfi had a dream to move to South Africa and
provide South Africans with authentic Italian ice-cream and adapted the 138-year-old recipe to suit the South African palate.
In 1994, my father and mother started a small ice-cream shop named “La Veneziana” in a tiny town called Magaliesburg, my hometown.
The desire for their ice-cream grew strong and soon their business had to as well to supply the increasing demand so in 1999 they started to build their very own factory on our farm.
“I was 3 years old at the time and already then, I had my place in the family business. I sat and handed my dad each brick that he then used to build his factory brick by brick.”
That is why I am so honoured to be able to carry on my family history and open Bambini Ice-cream and become my family’s 5 th generation ice-cream maker. I decided to call my
business “Bambini” which means children in Italian because I find that our family inheritance, our unique recipe has
provided each of the Belfi children over the generations, the opportunity to deliver quality ice-cream that is incomparable to others and is still made with real ingredients. I am blessed to be guided by my parents so that I can replicate the smiles that their ice-cream once made on their customers faces. - Luca Belfi