London took centre stage as the first British stop of 2024 on the Gelato Festival World Masters worldwide tour, the leading international championship in search of the world’s best gelato flavours. On 7 November, Carpigiani UK hosted the Carpigiani Challenge at the Park Royal Development Kitchen in London, where elite gelato chefs from across England presented their signature flavours and competed for a place in the European finals.

How the tour was laid out

After London, the UK tour continued in Manchester on 12 November and finished in Hereford on 14 November. On each day, every chef prepared their gelato in a specially equipped laboratory, and a panel of industry experts, local chefs and food journalists tasted and judged each flavour. The best flavour would advance to the European Finals of the Gelato Festival World Masters, set for 2025.

The 2022-2025 edition is organised by Gelato Festival with Carpigiani Gelato University and Sigep – Italian Exhibition Group.

The championship behind it

Now in its fifteenth year, the championship began in Florence in 2010 as “Gelato Festival”, a local competition inspired by the first recorded gelato recipe, crafted by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti in 1559. It spread across Italy, then Europe, then reached the United States in 2017 before becoming a global championship. The 2017-2021 edition alone drew more than 3,500 gelato artisans from around the world.

What this means for gelato makers in New Zealand

Competitions like this show how far a well-balanced recipe, good technique and a confident story can take a gelato maker. If you are building your own flavour range, the right artisan gelato machines and a solid grounding from Carpigiani Gelato University are the place to start, and Majors Group can help with both in New Zealand. Our team can also talk you through Rubicone ingredients for your next signature flavour.

Source: Carpigiani news. Rewritten for New Zealand by Majors Group.