Students from all over the globe — including Australia, China, Sudan, Lebanon and Britain — had enrolled in the $1100-a week course to learn the secrets to creating the perfect gelato with the intention of opening their own gelataria, the UK's Daily Telegraph reported.

Students of the university, established in 2003, learn to mix familiar flavours such as chocolate and vanilla, and are also encouraged to create their own. Some of the more intriguing flavour sensations include gelato made from red wine, olive oil, parmesan cheese and basil.

"In China they have experimented with fish-flavoured gelato," said Patrick Hopkins, the American director of the university told the Daily Telegraph.

"Gelato is a platform for flavours — you can adapt it to whatever culture you're in. Pear with parmesan and lemon with basil are some of the more unusual ones our students have come up with."

Gelato University is an off-shoot of Carpigiani, an Italian company that makes gelato machines. The university runs six different courses, ranging from beginner to advanced.

"We've had an 89 percent increase in enrolments. We're getting more and more people who have been hit by the economic crisis and want to create a new future for themselves," Hopkins said.

"A lot of them are senior businesspeople who have lost their jobs. Outside Italy it's not as though there's a gelataria on every corner. People taste Italian gelato and think to themselves 'why don't we have this at home?'"

The secret to the perfect gelato, the Daily Telegraph reported, is to get the right balance between the two key elements of the fat in milk and cream and the sugar in fruit and chocolate. The fat hardens as it freezes, while the sugar element does the opposite.