The European artisan ice cream for 2021 has been chosen by Spain and it is the Mantecado. an ancient vanilla cream ice cream, with orange sauce and dark chocolate flakes.
Gourmands from all over the world will be able to find out more about this gastronomic excellence with which Spain puts its flavors in the limelight on March 24th, when the European Artisanal Gelato Day is celebrated which officially kicks off the 2021 ice cream season by making an appointment with the laboratories of the best ice cream makers in Europe.
Mantecado is a tribute from Spain to its productive reality and its history: it is enriched by the flavor of the orange of which the Iberian country with a production of 3,4 million tons is the first, undisputed, European producer; of vanilla, originally from the humid tropical forests of the eastern coast of Mexico, already used by the Aztecs to perfume the chocolate that the conquistadors brought to Europe calling it "Vanilla" and of the chocolate that arrived in the old continent for the first time in the port of Seville from the colonies overseas and that the Spanish monks treated with vanilla and sugar to enhance the flavor and mitigate the bitterness of the berries.
Among the novelties of this year's edition of Gelato Day are the all-digital appointment at "Sigep EXP", the virtual version of the International Exhibition of Artisanal Gelato, Pastry, Bakery and Coffee by Italian Exhibition Group, the inauguration of a new YouTube channel dedicated to Gelato Day and a video contest that will test the skill and creativity of the artisans of gelato from the Old Continent and will allow enthusiasts to discover how many doses of skill and tradition and how many of imagination and flair are the basis of a perfect homemade ice cream.
The Alberto Pica Artisan Gelato Academy will be officially presented at Sigep with its gelato makers and its many appointments.
The dates are from 15 to 17 March and we start right from the Presentation of the Academy while in the afternoon of 15 March there will be a webinar on the ice cream market and the delivery curated by the Ambassador of Italian Gelato in the world, Santo Palumbo.
Tuesday 16 will instead be the turn of the appointment "The importance of raw materials in Italian artisan gelato", organized by the Accademia del Gelato Artigianale in collaboration with Coldiretti. While at 15 pm Fabio Pasquarella and Stefano Ferrara, from the Academy, will present a webinar on low-sugar ice cream. It closes on the 17th.
In the morning, the Associazione Italiana Gelatieri meets the companies of the sector virtually and the President of AIG Vincenzo Pennestrì participates in this meeting with the world champion of ice cream making, Eugenio Morrone, while the key event is at 15 pm with the first digital competition for ice cream making "Le new needs for ice cream – better water-based pistachio flavour”.
Why exactly pistachio? Because it is the most widespread and consumed flavor in Italy and in the world. The jury will be chaired by the Aig President Vincenzo Pennestrì and will be made up of Aldo Pasquarella and Eugenio Morrone, the food and wine journalist Luca Sessa and the foodblogger Elis Rubino.
Nine ice cream makers will compete to get the prize for the best pistachio ice cream. In the end, the top three winners will be announced and “crowned” by Flavia Morelli, Group Brand Manager Food & Beverage Sigep.
