Without Spain and France on the field, after last year’s controversial European qualifying round, everything seemed to indicate that Italy only had to beat Argentina to win the Gelato World Cup (hereinafter, GWC). And yet, the outcome of this competition held this Monday in Sigep drew a very different final than what everyone had imagined. The team led by a veteran of the competitions at this fair, Davide Malizia, strongly beat South Korea, second, and Hungary, third. All the expectations of the Argentinian team, which had gone to the final with significant preparation and investment, were falling by the wayside. Thus, he finished fourth in this competition.

The Italian team was made up of Vincenzo Donnarumma, Rosario Nicodemo, Filippo Valsecchi, Domenico di Clemente, and the delegate, the aforementioned Davide Malizia. His victory also occurs when the GWC reaches its tenth edition, one which is especially relevant due to its symbolic significance and due to the growing rumors about the withdrawal of the president of the organizing committee, Giancarlo Timballo. In this line precisely he received special recognition for his career from the organization. This farewell atmosphere was felt throughout the three days of the competition and also throughout the awards ceremony. This suggests that we could be on the verge of a transition to a new stage in a competition that has left behind historical members of the organization, such as the prestigious journalist Luciana Polliotti.

A year ago, the controversial European qualifying round in which France and Spain were left out generated a great debate around the lack of transparency and irregularities in this competition. This caused the GWC organization to take action in this final with the incorporation of a Spanish representative into the final’s commissioner team, the president of Anhcea, Marco Miquel, the MOF glacier Emmanuel Ryon, representing the president of the Confédération Nationale des Glaciers de France (CNGF), Bruno Aim, and Massimiliano Maccarrone, president of the Argentinian association Afadhya. As one of the commissioners, Marco Miquel assures the desire for change and transparency has been notable in a final with clearer and fairer rules of the competition, apparently without favoritism towards Italy. As reported by the organization, “the operational organization chart has also been renewed with the incorporation of a second international jury, the World Association of Chefs’ Societies.

The Gelato World Cup is organized by the Gelato e Cultura entity, as well as by the Italian Exhibition Group, and the eleven nations that competed were Argentina, Brazil, China, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Hungary, and Mexico. Poland, which had qualified without going through the European qualifying round through a direct pass, but decided not to participate. The different tests to be carried out were the decorated bucket, frozen cake, single portion in a glass, cream mystery box, fruit mystery box, starter with gastronomic ice cream, chocolate ice cream snack, ice sculptures, chocolate and guirlache, and the final buffet.