Like every year, special prizes were awarded in addition to the main prize.Continue reading
Ádám Fazekas, ice cream maker of Fazekas Confectionery in Budapest, has been named the best of 2024 in the Gelato Festival World Ranking, the organizers of the competition announced at a press conference in Rome on Tuesday.
Ádám Fazekas jumped to the top of the international podium with 227 points and three crowns. The Hungarian ice cream maker master won the Gelato Festival World Masters competition in 2021, and came in second in the Gelato Festival World Ranking in 2022, where he is now at the top.
At the press conference, Ádám Fazekas’ raspberry-flavored pistachio ice cream was presented, but it was not his only creation that won him the top spot in the international ranking.
Ádám Fazekas’ raspberry-flavored pistachio ice cream. Photo: Facebook/Budapest Fazekas Cukrászda
This year’s runner-up was Giovanni Bonazzi from Parona, Italy, and third place went to Savannah G. Lee from San Francisco.
The international competition for artisan ice cream makers has been held since 2011: over the last thirteen years, more than 8,000 ice cream creations have been tested, tasted, and scored by a jury of hundreds of experts.
This year, more than 1,200 entries were received from all over the world, not only from Europe and North America, but also from Africa and Asia.
In order to be included in the international ranking, confectioners have to participate for at least two years in various events, shows, and ice cream festivals, for which they receive points measured in crowns.
The Gelato Festival initiative made its debut in Florence in 2010, as the world’s first gelato recipe was born in the Tuscan city thanks to the versatile Bernardo Buontalenti. Buontalenti, also known as an architect, ‘invented’ gelato circa 1559. Since 2010, the event has expanded its reach, first to the rest of Italy, then to Europe, and since 2017, to the United States.
Via MTI, Featured image: Fazekas Cukrászda Budapest