Summer heat sends people in search of cool, and what could be more deliciously chilling than an icy sorbet? Even the colors — green apple, white peach and lemon — seem to promise a respite from soaring temperatures.

A nondairy, nonfat, no-cholesterol dessert, sorbet not only cools, it also satisfies the need for something sweet without the guilt. Most sorbets consist primarily of fruit, sugar and water, churned together and frozen to form a creamy consistency. The result is a refreshing dessert that's light enough to eat even after a large meal.

Sorbet has been around for centuries and is believed to have been the first frozen dessert. According to some accounts, in ancient Rome, Emperor Nero would have snow brought from the mountains and flavored with fresh fruits to produce a dessert similar to today's sorbets. Later, European explorers such as Marco Polo are said to have brought sorbet recipes from China.

It's only in the last few years, however, that Americans have acquired a taste for sorbet. Ice cream is still the frozen dessert of choice. On average, Americans eat an estimated 27 pints of ice cream per capita a year, plus another 12 pints of low-fat or nonfat ice cream. Sorbet accounts for less than 3 percent of the frozen-dessert products (excluding frozen novelties, such as ice-cream sandwiches) that restaurants purchase from manufacturers.

But sorbet's popularity is steadily increasing. According to the International Ice Cream Association (IICA), restaurants increased their sorbet purchases by 8 percent from 1994 to 1997. The Washington DC-based association projects restaurants will purchase 4.5 percent more sorbet in the year 2000 than they did in 1997.

"In the last two or three years, sorbet has become much more popular," says Steve Edmonds, owner of Gelati Celesti, a Redondo Beach, California, manufacturer of sorbet and gelato, a dense Italian ice cream. "We used to do about 70 percent of our sales in gelato and 30 percent in sorbet. Now we do about half and half."

A sorbet a day . . .

Part of sorbet's appeal is that it tastes like a treat but is more healthful than many other sweets. The average 5-ounce serving of Gelati Celesti sorbet has a mere 80 calories — and zero grams of fat. The same-size serving of the company's ice cream packs 380 calories and 18 grams of fat.

"Consumers are looking for healthy options," says Dan Petek, head of the Sorbet Manufacturers Association in Spokane, Washington. "They are becoming a lot more conscious about what they eat. And the five-fruits-a-day campaign brought over a lot of people. People realize that sorbet is nothing more than fruit, sugar and water. They can have a dessert and fulfill a nutritional requirement. And sorbet is great for people who are diabetic or lactose intolerant."

Furthermore, sorbet is becoming the healthful frozen dessert of choice. While sorbet sales are climbing, frozen-yogurt sales are melting. From 1994 to 1997, restaurants decreased their purchases of hard-packed frozen yogurt from manufacturers by 7 percent and decreased their purchases of soft-serve frozen yogurt by 10 percent, according to the IICA.

An IICA report concludes that "growth [in the frozen-dessert industry] is driving from two diametric forces: increased 'indulgence' and increased 'nutritional' awareness. Indulgence will drive 'richer' desserts. Nutritional awareness will promote lower-fat items, like sorbet, that have intense flavors."

As chef Anthony Ambrose, of Boston's Ambrosia on Huntington, explains, "People like sorbet because they don't have to cut through the fat to taste the fruit and other flavors. They can even taste the delicacies of lavender, apple blossom and mint."

Ciao Bella, an Irvington, New Jersey, sorbet and gelato manufacturer, which serves more than 1,000 restaurants, prides itself on the intensity of its flavors. "Eating our chocolate is like eating frozen fudge," says David Sheridan, manager of customer relations. "With the mango sorbet, if you close your eyes, it's like eating a cold mango."

During the summer, sorbet is especially popular, says Sheridan. "Summertime is bikini season," when people watching their waistlines opt for sorbet, he says. Sorbet also cools things off on a hot summer day. "You take a bite of it, and you feel 100 percent better." In fact, because of the refreshing taste, restaurants sometimes use savory sorbets — such as lemon thyme or tomato basil — between courses as palate cleansers.

Icy sculptures

On its own, a scoop of sorbet makes a simple, refreshing dessert. But dressed up in the right dish with the right accompaniments, sorbet becomes as pleasing to the eye as to the palate. Take for example, the "Rhapsody of Sorbets," a signature dessert at Chicago's Rhapsody restaurant. It features a trio of colorful sorbets, scooped into the shape of small eggs. The sorbet eggs rest atop a spun-sugar nest that covers a fruit salad of diced mangos, kiwis, pineapples and bananas.

Paul Saucedo, Rhapsody's pastry chef, incorporates sorbet into several other desserts, including a fruit torte with raspberry sorbet, a cheesecake with litchi sorbet and a chocolate cake with coconut sorbet. "Sorbet helps complement the dessert and makes it so that the plate doesn't look so empty," he says.

Rhapsody's sister restaurant, Mango, dresses up its sorbet sampler with attention-grabbing platings. Until recently, the Chicago restaurant used votive-candle holders to showcase four varieties of sorbets. Staffers now place four scoops of a sorbet inside a glass cone that rests in a glass spherical container.

At Stuff Yer Face, an East Brunswick, New Jersey, restaurant that specializes in stromboli, sorbet is served inside fresh fruit to create a captivating dessert. Scooped-out lemons, oranges and coconuts function as sorbet bowls. "We're such a different restaurant that we wanted a different dessert," says Lori Dalessandro, a unit manager. The fruit-filled sorbets are made in Spain by the Helados Alacant company.

Jack Fry's in Louisville, Kentucky, uses another form of edible container — cookies. Lace almond-cookie cups and tulip cookie cups — in flavors ranging from orange zest to coconut — serve as appetizing sorbet bowls. In more traditional glass ice-cream bowls, the restaurant serves two sorbet flavors that complement one another — such as boysenberry and black currant — along with a lace cookie and fresh fruit. As a finishing touch, pastry chef Robyn Ferguson garnishes the desserts with edible fresh flowers, such as pansies, marigolds and geraniums.

Chilling possibilities

Gone are the days when sorbet was limited to raspberry and lemon. Those two flavors — along with mango and blood orange — are still Ciao Bella's top sellers. But the company also offers another 30 flavors. Emerging favorites include those with an Asian influence, such as passion fruit, lemon-grass coconut and ginger lemon, says Sheridan. In addition, Ciao Bella offers a seasonal line of another five or six flavors. For example, spring flavors included margarita, melon with basil and raspberry zinfandel. It also produces custom-made flavors on request and has developed sorbet recipes for everything from blackberry champagne to rose petal.

Restaurant chefs are also experimenting with sorbet flavors. Jack Fry's Ferguson estimates that she has made more than 30 varieties of sorbet, including green apple, blood orange and white peach. "I use any fruit that I can get my hands on or any fruit puree that I can get," she says.

Chef Ambrose finds inspiration for new sorbet recipes in a variety of events — even the birth of his son, Tucker. When Ambrose and his wife, Dorene, were expecting their first child in 1997, their childbirth instructor suggested giving Dorene ice chips to soothe her during labor. Always the chef, Ambrose thought, "What could I put in the ice chips that would be calming and healing?" His answer: chamomile tea.

In their haste to get to the hospital, the Ambroses forgot their chamomile-infused ice chips. However, the idea wasn't abandoned. Ambrose began offering chamomile-tea sorbet in his restaurant and about a year later began mass-marketing his Chef Anthony Ambrose Chamomile Tea Sorbet: Fusion Style Herbal Sorbet. Available at more than 200 gourmet grocery stores, the sorbet line features three flavors-lime leaf, chocolate nutmeg and lavender peach. Ambrose plans to produce more retail sorbets and uses his restaurant as a sorbet test kitchen.

The secret to a successful sorbet

When Sean Kelly opened the Aubergine Cafe in Denver five years ago, he gave barely a moment's thought to sorbet and ice cream. Consumed with the countless other things it takes to start a restaurant, he was satisfied to purchase his frozen desserts ready-made. That was until last summer, when Kelly began his quest to develop the perfect ice cream and sorbet.

After borrowing a friend's old-fashioned ice-cream machine — one that required him to pack the bottom with ice and rock salt and to churn the contents by hand — Kelly took the plunge and bought a $500 automatic ice-cream maker. Now he prepares the sorbet mixture, pours it into the machine and lets it do the rest.

Making sorbet is actually quite easy — once you know what you're doing, says Kelly. "It takes some perseverance," he says. "It can be frustrating. Some batches won't come out right."

Sebastien Canonne, who teaches sorbet making at Chicago's French Pastry School, agrees. "There's a lot of mathematical formulas involved," he says. For example, sorbets need different amounts of sugar, depending on the fruit's solid content. Put in too much sugar and the sorbet becomes soupy, too little and it becomes hard.

As for Kelly, he uses a semiscientific method, called the "egg test" to determine the right balance of ingredients and how much sugar is needed. He places a whole raw egg still in its shell on top of his sorbet mixture before freezing it. If the egg floats so that only a dime-size portion of the shell is above the liquid, he has achieved the right balance of ingredients. If it sinks lower, the mixture requires more sugar. If more of the shell is visible, the recipe needs more water.

Other restaurateurs find it simpler to purchase sorbet from a supplier. "It's a lot of work for them [to make sorbet]," says Gelati Celesti's Edmonds. "It's a lot easier to buy it from us. We make hundreds of gallons of it at a time, so we can make it more cost efficiently."

Ciao Bella's Sheridan concurs. "We make it that much easier. That way they can concentrate on other things. And they know that they're going to get a very consistent product," he says. Purchasing ready-made sorbet also allows restaurateurs to offer a wider variety of flavors than they can often make on their own.

Among Ciao Bella's customers is Mango restaurant. Chef Tim Edmonds notes that Mango's small kitchen leaves little room for sorbet making. Meanwhile, its sister restaurant, Rhapsody, makes sorbets in its larger kitchen. "You just can't beat the quality of homemade sorbet," says Rhapsody's Saucedo. But whether you make it yourself or purchase it, he says, "sorbet is a great way to add volume to your menu at a low cost."

And it's also the perfect way to cool off customers and heat up summertime sales.

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