Greece’s 3 Best Gelato Artisans of 2024 Named in Athens

Gelato Festival World Masters returned to Greece for a second year, and Athens produced three winners who will go on to the 2025 Greek Finals.

The Athens round

Ten gelato makers competed in Athens on 4 April 2024, in the second national stop following the previous year’s challenge. The event was hosted by the local Carpigiani distributor. Gelato Festival World Masters is the world championship run with strategic partners Carpigiani and Sigep – Italian Exhibition Group.

Gelatos were judged on flavour, structure, creativity, and verbal and aesthetic presentation. That meant ingredient choice, the maker’s skill in developing and explaining the recipe, and the overall result through sight, taste and smell.

The winners

• First place: Pantelis Maimetis of Neraida, Neapoli Lakonias, with “Portokali Armparoriza”, a gelato of orange and malva carrying the flavours and aromas of Lakonia.
• Second place: Charalampos Marantidis of Marantidis, Kavala, with “Exotic Greek Cheese”, an anthotyro cheese gelato with mango, lemon toffee and crunchy sesame.
• Third place: Nikolaos Zotos of Zotos Gelateria, Fira, Santorini, with “Santorinian Pistachio Sorbet”, a pistachio sorbet with a Santorini twist.

The jury was Stefanos Sbonias (pastry chef, Hotel Grande Bretagne, Athens), Panagiotis Xigos (chef and managing consultant at Sklavenitis) and Harry Psilopoulos (pastry instructor, Le Monde Institute).

Other participants

• Panos Bobas, Iter del gusto, Athens: “Iter del gusto”
• Nikolaos Christogeorgos, Solo Gelato, Athens: “Cioccobianco Limone”
• Dimitris Chatiras, Insane Gelato, Korinthias: “Rose yoghurt”
• Katerina Farmaki, Cheese Farms, Veroia: “Kaimaki”
• Spyridon Chatzakis, Spyridona, Heraklion: “Phistolemon”
• Georgios Kerameidas, Ice Cream Lab, Crete: “Cretan infusion”
• Anastasios Vomvylas, Fellini, Rhodes: “Fellini”

Background

With the 2022-25 edition, Gelato Festival World Masters reached its thirteenth year. It debuted in Florence in 2010, inspired by the first gelato recipe, created by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti in 1559, then spread across Italy, Europe and, from 2017, the United States, before going worldwide as a championship that drew more than 3,500 gelato makers.

What this means for gelato makers in Australia

Local ingredients and creative pairings are what make a competition-winning flavour. Majors Group can help gelato makers in Australia with Carpigiani gelato machines, Rubicone ingredients and Carpigiani Gelato University training.

Source: Carpigiani news. Rewritten for Australia by Majors Group.