Hungarian ice cream maker Ádám Fazekas has been ranked #1 in Gelato Festival’s 2024 world ranking. He beat out Giovanna Bonazzi from Parona, Italy in second place by 14 points; and Savannah G. Lee from San Francisco, California, USA by 19 points in third place. Fazekas ended the competition with 227 points.
The Gelato Festival explains its world ranking on its official website by writing:
‘The Gelato Festival World Ranking is the definitive world ranking of the best artisanal gelato chefs around the globe. Updated annually, this list ranks all of the gelato artisans who have competed in our Gelato Festival tournaments since 2011, as well as in the Gelato World Tour, who are our partners. Today, our growing community includes more than 1,000 gelato artisans worldwide.’
The Hungarian ice cream maestro runs the Fazekas cake shop (Fazekas Cukrászda) in Budapest’s 16th district.
One of his famous compositions is his raspberry-pistachio gelato, which was offered to members of the press at the press conference announcing his #1 world ranking.
Gelato Festival has been releasing its annual rankings since 2011. This was not the first time Fazekas brought home a major accolade. As a true testament to his craftsmanship, he won the Gelato Festival World Masters competition in 2021. He was also ranked #2 on Gelato’s world ranking the next year, in 2022 with 225 points, second only behind the Italian Marco Venturino.
It is interesting to note that Gelato Festival’s website only uses the word ‘gelato’ to refer to the cold dessert, and never ‘ice cream’. They even embedded an informational video about why gelato is not the same as ice cream. Well, anyone who has tasted real gelato couldn’t agree more!
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