Professionals of ice cream, pastry, ice sculpture and haute cuisine representing eleven world countries, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Argentina, Colombia, challenged each other in Rimini , on the occasion of Sigep, in the 2020 Gelato World Cup.
Italy with a team led by Bepo Tonon, took first place. The second podium was conquered by the team of Japan, silver medal, third placed Argentina, bronze medal.
The teams had to face eight tests: decorated tub of ice cream, glass single portion, mystery box (surprise ingredients), artistic ice cream cake, haute cuisine entrée, sculpture in ice and crunchy and the ice cream snack.
Unanimous recognition from the international jury for the affirmation of the Italian team formed by the ice cream maker Eugenio Morrone, born in Catanzaro in 1984 but Roman by adoption, owner of the "Il cannolo siciliano" ice cream shop, by Massimo Carnio, owner of the "La villa dei cedri" pastry shop in Valdobbiadene, by chef Marco Martinelli, cooking school teacher at Cast Alimenti, by the ice sculptor Ciro Chiummo, forty-two years old, originally from Secondigliano, pastry master at the Aroacademy Academy in Rome.
Leading and training the group is a great certainty of the Italian ice cream shop, Giuseppe Tonon, originally from Ponte di Piave, already winner in 2006 of the Ice Cream World Cup who manages “Ca'Lozzio” in Oderzo, an ice cream shop-restaurant which is also a conference center , cultural and artistic club, which hosts art exhibitions and concerts of classical, opera and modern music. Recurring presence in various TV channels he is particularly famous in the field of decoration, above all for the sculptures of vegetables and fruit, in Italy and abroad where he is called to hold courses at professional schools.
Each of the 11 teams entered the competition with a competition theme. Italy proposed "The secrets of the forest", with the ice sculpture by Ciro Chiummo depicting a deer emerging from a bush and the pistachio, raspberry and strawberry and blackberry ice cream cake on a crunchy base with mascarpone semifreddo and vanilla. In section, in the slice, the shape of the cyclamen and blackberry. The ice cream cake also won the Press Jury's special prize.
For the record, Japan, runner-up with an ice statue with the theme "Flower of Music" was represented as a team by Naoki Matsuo, Kenichi Matsunaga, Kengo Akabame and Hiromi Nishikawa with Kanjiro Mochizuki team leader. Finally, the Argentina team, which had chosen "Pirates of the Caribbean" as its theme, was represented by Mariano Zichert, Pablo Nicolas Renes, Matias Dragun and Ruben Darre, with team leader Maximiliano Cesar Maccarrone.
Ice cream remains one of the foods most loved by Italians who annually consume six kilograms each. By now its consumption is no longer limited to the summer months but continues throughout the year. To be preferred by far is the artisanal one distributed by almost 40.000 ice cream parlors where it is estimated that over 150.000 people work. And traditional tastes are now joined by xenophile, naturalist, dietetic, vegan or zero-kilometre flavors such as ice creams with local fruit and vegetables but also with PDO cheeses or great wines.
The impact on related industries is considered significant in Italy, with the use of 220 tons of milk, 64 sugars, 21 fresh fruit and 29 other raw materials with flavors ranging from donkey's milk to goat's milk up to hoax.
Gelato: Invented in Italy but made famous in France
Although it is not easy to distinguish exactly the various types of preparation, the Italian origin of ice cream is generally recognized in most of the world, but it was its introduction in France that made it famous throughout Europe.
Certain information about ice cream as a "business" can be found on Francesco Procopio of the Knives, a Sicilian cook.
Starting from Aci Trezza, after many failures and successive improvements, he arrived in Paris, where he opened in 1686 a place that still exists today, the Procope Café, where a large variety of ice creams were served. Later, given the enormous success achieved, it moved to a new and larger location (today in rue de l'Ancienne Comédie), opposite the Comédie Francaise (the theatre, founded in 1680, would later move to its current location in 1799).
That "Café" offered: "frozen water" (granite), fruit ice cream, "anise flowers", "cinnamon flowers", "frangipane", "lemon juice ice cream", "orange juice ice cream ”, “strawberry sorbet”, in a “royal licence” (a concession) with which Louis XIV had given Procopio the exclusivity of those sweets.
It dates back to around 1884, one of the best known Italian ice cream shops, made by cooling ice cream, sugar and large tubs of "brine", which began its business in Turin. It was the beginning of the ice cream shop Cucumber which still today produces ice cream in the Piedmontese capital. This resale was certainly the first in northern Italy to bring ice cream to a popular level and the only one to be able to boast the Royal House Supplier Patents.
An Italian introduced it to America
And it is still thanks to an Italian that ice cream landed in America. It is due to Filippo Lenzi, at the end of the eighteenth century century, which opened the first ice cream parlor in America. Ice cream spread to such an extent that it stimulated a new invention: the crank ice cream maker, patented in the XNUMXth century by William Le Young.
Among the various schools that have distinguished themselves over time in the manufacture and export of Italian ice cream culture abroad, the one deserves mention Venetian, especially that of the Zoldo Valley, of the Cadore of province of Belluno, which has been able to be appreciated all over the world. In particular, an ice cream maker from Cadore Italo Marchioni in 1903 he invented the ice cream, or a container made of wafer with the part open upwards to be filled with ice cream (in scoops or with a spatula), contributing with this innovation to increase the popularity and diffusion of Italian ice cream.
