Belgium is in the spotlight as the second European stop of 2024 of the Gelato Festival World Masters international tour, the most important international championship in search of the best gelato flavours in the world. On February 27th, Carpigiani Benelux will host at their Zandhoven headquarters the first Carpigiani Challenge of the year, a competition where 25 gelato artisans from the Flanders region will compete with their best flavour for a spot in the European finals. The new Gelato Festival World Masters 2022-2025 championship is organized by Gelato Festival in collaboration with Carpigiani Gelato University, the world’s most renowned school for successful gelato entrepreneurs, and Sigep – Italian Exhibition Group, the world’s leading B2B show dedicated to artisan gelato, pastry, bakery and coffee.
On the competition day, the chefs will prepare their gelato in the laboratory provided by the organizers; then, industry experts, local chefs and food journalists will taste and evaluate each gelato. The 3 top flavors will go on to compete as Benelux finalists at the European Finals of Gelato Festival World Masters, to be held in the upcoming years. 

With the 2022-25 edition Gelato Festival World Masters reaches its thirteenth year, having debuted in Florence in 2010 as “Gelato Festival”, a local competition inspired by the conception of the first gelato recipe at the hands of the multifaceted architect Bernardo Buontalenti in 1559. Since then, the event has grown exponentially by expanding first to the rest of Italy, then to Europe and - since 2017 - to the United States as well, before embracing the entire planet with the Gelato Festival World Masters world championship, which involved more than 3,500 gelato makers with the 2017-2021 edition.