Photo: IEG-Sigep 2020

Italy has won the 9^th Gelato World Cup. It was followed on the podium of the Gelato Arena at Italian Exhibition Group’s Sigep and A. B. TECH Tech Expo 2020, by Japan and Argentina.

Yesterday evening, the Italian team that won the world’s sweetest contest, organized by Sigep and Gelato&Cultura, received unanimous recognition, confirmed by the votes of the trade press jury and artistic jury. In the Italian team gelato maker Eugenio Morrone, pastry chef Massimo Carnio, chef Marco Martinelli and ice sculptor Ciro Chiummo, with team leader Giuseppe Tonon . For Japan, the team was made up of Naoki Matsuo, Kenichi Matsunaga, Kengo Akabame and Hiromi Nishikawa with team leader Kanjiro Mochizuki. Lastly, for Argentina, the team was formed by Mariano Zichert, Pablo Nicolas Renes, Matias Dragun and Ruben Darre, with team leader Maximiliano Cesar Maccarrone.

Photo: IEG-Sigep 2020

Each of the 11 teams entered the competition with a contest theme. The winners showed their skill with “The secrets of the forest”, with the ice sculpture by Ciro Chiummo showing a deer emerging from a bush and a gelato cake with pistachio, raspberry and strawberry and brambles on a brittle base with mascarpone and vanilla flavoured semifreddo. In the slices’ cross-section there was the profile of a cyclamen and a bramble. The gelato cake also won the special Press jury award. Japan achieved second place on the podium with the theme “Flowers of music”, whereas Argentina chose “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

The eight tests occupied the teams over the three contest days: decorated gelato tub, glass individual portion, mystery box (different surprise ingredients for each team), artistic gelato cake, haut cuisine entrée, sculpture in ice and brittle, gelato snack and Final Grand buffet, i.e. the presentation of all the entries. Assisting the champions were the students of Rimini’s Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta Hotel School.

Photo: IEG-Sigep 2020

As well as the award for the best gelato cake, other special awards went to Japan for the best ice sculpture; for the most innovative flavour, Argentina obtained maximum votes in the Mystery Box, Italy won the Best Final Grand Buffet award, assigned by the artistic jury and, lastly, the Carlo Pozzi Award, for tidiness and cleanness was assigned by the contest’s referees to Japan’s team, which kept its workspace in the best conditions.

There were 12 technical judges: president Pier Paolo Magni coordinated the team leaders of the 11 teams. Contestants’ work was supervised by three technical referees with lengthy experience: Sergio Colalucci, Sergio Dondoli and Gaetano Mignano and some champions of the Cup’s previous editions: Leonardo Ceschin, Stefano Venier, Francesco Falasconi, Luigi Tirabassi, Amelio Mazzella di Regnella, Antonio Capuano, Maurizio Alessi and Luca Mazzotta.

Media Jury: 10 international journalists specialized in gelato, pastry and F&B:  Manuela Rossi, Emanuela Balestrino, Bernard Bedaridà, Luis Concepción, Stefan Elfenbein, Margo Schatcher, Yumi Hasegawa Picone, Mariarosaria Bruno, Victor Sokolowicz and Natalia Mendoza assigned a special Award for the best Gelato Cake.

Artistic Jury: three members of international importance: art historian Lorena Gava (Italy), MOF Chef Stephane Didier (France) and Adolfo Romero (Spanish gelato champion) gave a special mention for the Final Grand buffet.