Summer is the perfect time to update the world ranking of top gelato shops, and this time you’ll have to look east! Gelato Festival World Ranking – the world's most comprehensive industry ranking for individual gelato artisans promoted by Gelato Festival World Masters, Carpigiani, and Sigep Italian Exhibition Group – has updated its standings, crowning Adám Fazekas of the Fazekas Cukrászda gelato shop in Budapest, Hungary, as the best gelato artisan of 2024. A complex scoring system that takes into account participation in competitions and qualifying rounds from 2011 to the present and the results achieved have placed him on the top of the podium with 227 points and an impressive three crowns.

Gelato Festival World Ranking rates individual gelato artisans based on scores earned over 13 years of competitions and more than 8,000 gelato artisans evaluated by hundreds of experts. 1,278 gelato shops have reached the minimum score required to be included in the 2024 ranking, with 681 new gelato parlors entering the ranking compared to 2022. By new gelato artisans is meant professionals from around the world who have participated in the latest qualifying rounds in the four years from 2022 to 2025. A total of 498 gelato artisans were excluded from 2024 as a result of points being deducted due to lack of participation in events for 24 consecutive months. There were 61 professionals who earned coveted "Crowns," including five with three crowns, 24 with two crowns and 32 with one crown. The complete list of gelato shops is available here: https://gelatofestival.com/pages/world-ranking-2024

In second place in the standings with 213 points is the first Italian Giovanna Bonazzi from the La Parona del Gelato shop in Parona, Verona, an ardent competitor in recent editions of the Gelato Festival who has turned her winning past in mountain biking, with two world titles as a professional racer, into another podium in the world of gelato.

 Third place was won by another woman, but this time from across the ocean. With 208 points and three crowns, the bronze went to Savannah G. Lee of Savannah's Gelato Kitchen in San Francisco, California.

Marco Venturino of I Giardini di Marzo gelato shop in Varazze, Savona, who had been ranked first in 2022, was inducted into the Gelato Festival World Ranking's Hall of Fame. He will no longer participate in the upcoming competitions as a competitor but will become one of its qualified judges. He thus joins Eugenio Morrone of Rome’s Il Cannolo Siciliano gelato shop, who had been ranked first in 2020 and in the same year won the gold medal at the Gelato World Cup as a member of the team representing Italy.

"The announcement of the rankings is a very important moment for gelato professionals and an opportunity for us as organizers to measure the growth of the Gelato Festival World Masters family," commented Adriana Tancredi, Project Manager for Gelato Festival World Masters. "In the last two years we have added almost 700 new gelato artisans worldwide to the rankings, judged in the many challenges held all over Europe as well as a successful competition open to the public in Los Angeles, not to mention the Carpigiani Day event, the first with 100 gelato professionals competing at the same time, organized with impeccable teamwork together with our highly experienced partners Carpigiani and Sigep. Looking ahead to the World Finals, we have many surprises in store for the coming years, especially in Europe and the United States."

"Artisanal gelato is an example of Italian excellence that represents one of the leading sectors of the desserts industry and is seeing growing consumption trends worldwide. Sigep's international strategy is to expand its reach by encouraging the development of new markets. We recently concluded the second edition of Sigep China, and in a few days we will inaugurate the first edition of Sigep Asia, scheduled to take place in Singapore on June 26-28. Furthermore, we are already working on the incoming program aimed at buyers for a Sigep 2025 that is increasingly attractive worldwide," announced Valentina Sorgente, Exhibition Manager of the Sigep Italian Exhibition Group.

"Summing up after 13 years of competitions, what emerges is an ever-increasing commitment of gelato artisans to researching ingredients, studying balancing techniques, and creating their own unique style. The intent is certainly to convince the judge's palates, but the ultimate goal is to make customers happy. This is clear from the number of new gelato professionals signing up for the competition and the demand from all over the world to organize a local event," observed Giulia Rossi, Carpigiani Project Manager. "Added to this is the growing interest in advanced gelato training that we can derive from the attendance figures of Carpigiani Gelato University at its 24 campuses around the world. Gelato professionals are working harder and harder to offer new and better quality products. This international ranking is a reliable and current snapshot of a phenomenon that we can call global."

Gelato Festival World Ranking: 4th to 10th place

4th place – Massimiliano Scotti of VeroLatte in Vigevano, Italy, with 193 points and three crowns

5th place – Maurizio Melani of Véneta Gelato Italiano in Valencia, Spain, with 186 points and three crowns

6th place, tied – Fabio Forghieri of Gelateria dei Principi in Correggio, Italy, with 176 points and two crowns

6th place, tied – Leonardo La Porta of Gelateria Miretti in Turin, Italy, with 176 points and two crowns

7th place – Carlo Guerriero of La Cremeria Gelato Italiano in Cadiz, Spain, with 175 points and two crowns

8th place, tied – Paolo Pomposi of Gelateria Pasticceria Badiani in Florence, Italy, with 169 points and two crowns

8th place, tied – Tomasz Szypula of Szypula - 1974 in Baborów, Poland, with 169 points and two crowns

9th place – Fabrizio Fenu of I Fenu in Cagliari, Italy, with 164 points and two crowns

10th place – Taseer of Fabulous Ice Fires in London, UK, with 158 points and two crowns

Improved from 1 to 2 crowns:

• Giuseppe Lollino, Vero Coffee and Gelato, Illinois, USA, 132 points
• Gian Paolo Porrino, L’arte del dolce, Vittuone, Italy, 121 points
• Andrea Riva, GelArt, Sesto San Giovanni, Italy, 117 points

10 newly crowned artisans for 2024 (1 crown):

• Francesco Simone Sodano, Is Pop, Pomigliano d'Arco, Italy, 90 points
• Salvatore Ravese, Gelateria Garden, Gioia Tauro, Italy, 78.5 points
• Niccolò Caradonna, Gelateria Genius, Lastra a Signa, Italy, 78 points
• Emanuele Alvaro, Gelateria-Cioccolateria Maravè, Rome, Italy, 72.5 points
• Oscar Nassa, Gelateria Lapecoranera, Brescia, Italy, 72.5 points
• Golan Chetrit, Noi Due Gelato, New York City, USA, 72 points
• Luca Castellucci, Gelateria Demetra, Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy, 72 points   
• Paolo Macor, Dolci Emozioni, Cordovado, Italy, 72 points
• Alessandro Cesari, Sablè Gelato, Bologna, Italy, 72 points 
• Gabriele Fiumara, California Café, Santa Teresa di Riva, Italy, 72 points

The full ranking can be seen at https://gelatofestival.com/pages/world-ranking-2024

How the ranking works

As of June 2024 the Gelato Festival World Ranking includes around 8,000 gelato professionals from Africa, Asia, America, and Europe. Points are calculated based on participation in gelato competitions promoted by Gelato Festival, Sigep - IEG Expo, and Carpigiani from 2011 to the present, such as: Carpigiani Challenge, Gelato Festival Challenge, Carpigiani Day, Gelato Festival competitions open to the public, and digital events in 2020-2021. Each event contributes to the artisan’s overall score, which is then used to determine a global ranking, aimed at achieving the goal of engaging and mapping the more than 100,000 artisanal gelato shops around the world. Those who earn a particularly high score will see it translated into "crowns," a symbol of success achieved in the ranking, from one up to a maximum of five. 1,278 gelato shops have reached the minimum score required to be included in the 2024 ranking, with 681 new gelato parlors entering the ranking compared to 2022. There were 61 professionals who earned coveted "Crowns," including five with three crowns, 24 with two crowns and 32 with one crown.

THE DATA: THE LANDSCAPE IN EUROPE AND ITALY. THE FORECAST FOR SUMMER 2024

(Sigep Observatory data, May 2024)

In the five largest European countries (Italy, Spain, France, Germany, UK), 2.2 billion servings of gelato were sold in 2023, a year in which gelato consumption in Europe grew by 4.7% according to CREST-Circana data. Italy remains the leading market with 28% of gelato servings out of the European total. According to Circana an increase is expected in 2024 thanks to a consumer who considers gelato an indispensable and accessible pleasure in an economic environment that remains uncertain.
According to Claudio Pica, president of FIEPET Confesercenti and secretary general of the Italian Association of Gelato Artisans (AIG), “the positive sales performance recorded this spring makes it possible to estimate an increase in consumption in Italy from 6% to as much as 12% in art cities with high tourist traffic. This growth is backed by the strategies for the international expansion of the gelato sector implemented by exhibition giants such as Sigep and by the associations linked to the entire supply chain.”

Gelato Festival debuted in Florence in 2010, inspired by the creation of the first gelato recipe by the versatile architect Bernardo Buontalenti in 1559. Since then the event has expanded its borders, first to the rest of Italy, then to Europe and – starting in 2017 – the United States, with a total of 80 Festivals held, before embracing the entire planet with the world championship of Gelato Festival World Masters 2021, which concluded in December 2021 and saw a record of 3,500 gelato artisans judged by international juries. The latest four-year cycle began in October 2022 and has already recorded hundreds of events and thousands of registrations.