Gelato Festival World Masters, the main category tournament with partners Carpigiani and Sigep - Italian Exhibition Group, is on its new journey around the world for the period 2022-2025 searching for the world’s best gelato. The first Bulgarian challenge took place in Sofia on March 22nd, where 12 Bulgarian gelato artisans took part in the sweetest competition of the year at the Bulgaria Mall, organized by SBI BG, Carpigiani’s distributor.
The winning gelato artisans and the best gelato artisans in Bulgaria for 2023 are:

First place
Velislava Kostova of Kostovi EMK in Saedinenie with the flavor “Cheese Saedinenie”
Description: gelato made with typical Bulgarian cheese, dry fig with Marsala and caramel, with caramelized walnuts on top

Second place
Zoya Ivanova of Amora Gelato in Sofia with the flavor “Blue Cheese with Figs” 
Description: blue cheese gelato with figs jam and walnuts

Third place
Ventsislav Georgiev of Gelato MIO in Pomorie with the flavor “Nonna Zoe”
Description: cream cheese gelato, mastiha hios, kataifi and salted pistachio

The selected gelato artisans will go on to the European Finals of Gelato Festival World Masters scheduled for 2025. Flavor, structure, creativity and presentation are the four parameters used for the evaluation, highlighting the choice of ingredients, the craftsmanship in elaborating the recipe and the visual impact of the gelato (see below the full list of participants). 

The jury was composed of: 
-    Chef Dimo Dimov – Executive chef/owner at Cult Gourmet Catering, Executive member of Bulgarian Association of Professional Chefs
-    Chef Leo Bianchi – Chef at Italian restaurants Leo's pizza & Leo's Pasta, Gelato Ambassador and TV personality
-    Chef Youri Baltaliyski – Pastry chef owner of Quince patisserie, Judge of Bake Off Bulgaria and TV personality
-    Sandra Alexieva - Food Stylist at Sandra Food Studio - Make your project, real art – and owner of “1001 Recipes” online magazine
-    Ivan Madjarov – Gelato chef and event manager

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 - with the victory of Adam Fazekas from Budapest - and saw a record of 3,500 gelato artisans judged by international juries. 

GELATO FESTIVAL WORLD MASTERS 
Bulgarian Challenge 
March 22nd, 2023
Sofia – Bulgaria Mall
Carpigiani distributor: SBI BG

WINNERS

First place
Velislava Kostova of Kostovi EMK in Saedinenie with the flavor “Cheese Saedinenie”
Description: gelato made with typical Bulgarian cheese, dry fig with Marsala and caramel, with caramelized walnuts on top

Second place
Zoya Ivanova of Amora Gelato in Sofia with the flavor “Blue Cheese with Figs” 
Description: blue cheese gelato with figs jam and walnuts

Third place
Ventsislav Georgiev of Gelato MIO in Pomorie with the flavor “Nonna Zoe”
Description: cream cheese gelato, mastiha hios, kataifi and salted pistachio

List of the other participants:

•    Rumen Georgiev of Amore Gelati in Sofia with the flavor “The Heart of Pavlova”
•    Tzvetelina Doncheva of Gelateria Delizia in Sofia with the flavor “Delizia”
•    Tzvetina    Zaharieva of Gelato Lab in Sofia with the flavor “Pop Up”
•    Dobromira Ivanova of Nero 07 in Varna with the flavor “Orient Express”
•    Petya Velikova of Bars & Restaurants in Varna with the flavor “Bizantio”
•    Oleksandr Uvarov of Yellow Cat Gelato in Burgas with the flavor “Mom’s Cake”
•    Yulia Nozhkina of Ruskovets Resort in Dobrinishte with the flavor “Santofichi Gelato”
•    Mustafa Drenkov of MEMO Sweet House in Plovdiv with the flavor “Pumpkin”
•    Vladimir Dimitrov of DiPi Gelato in Haskovo with the flavor “Di-Fuchsia”