Italy has won the ninth edition of the Ice Cream World Cup, held on January 19, 20 and 21 at Sigep Rimini. Italy thus becomes the country that has won the title the most times, surpassing France in the historical record of the competition, which on this occasion has come in fourth place and off the podium.

The Italian team, led by Giuseppe Tonon and formed by Eugenio Morrone, Massimo Carnio, Marco Martinelli and Ciro Chiummo, received unanimous recognition from the three jurors (technical, artistic, and press). In its buffet “The secrets of the forest”, the ice sculpture 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 flavored semifreddo stand out, in addition to the gelato cake that won the special Press jury award.

Japan came in second place with the theme “Flowers of music”. Naoki Matsuo, Kenichi Matsunaga, Kengo Akabame, and Hiromi Nishikawa, with team leader Kanjiro Mochizuki, received no penalty and came up with what was considered by many to be the most complete and brilliant work.

The third place went to the Argentinian team, composed of Mariano Zichert, Pablo Nicolas Renes, Matias Dragun, and Ruben Darre, with team leader Maximiliano Cesar Maccarrone, who chose the theme “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

Other special awards were also awarded during the championship: Best ice sculpture for Japan, Mystery Box innovative flavor for Argentina, Carlo Pozzi for cleanliness and order at work for Japan, and Best Final Buffet for Italy.