Zandhoven Hosts a Gelato Festival Challenge for Belgium’s Best
Belgium opened the European leg of the 2025 Gelato Festival World Masters tour, the international championship in search of the world’s best gelato flavours. On 24 February, Carpigiani Benelux hosted the first European Carpigiani Challenge of the year at its Zandhoven headquarters, for the third year running.
How the challenge worked
More than 20 gelato artisans from Flanders were set to compete with their best flavour for a place in the European finals. On the day, the chefs prepared their gelato in a laboratory supplied by the organisers. Industry experts, local chefs and food journalists then tasted and scored each entry.
The top three flavours would go through as Benelux finalists to the Gelato Festival World Masters European Finals, scheduled for October 2025.
Who is behind the championship
The 2022-2025 championship is organised by Gelato Festival with Carpigiani Gelato University, the world’s best-known school for gelato entrepreneurs, and Sigep – Italian Exhibition Group, the leading B2B show for artisan gelato, pastry, bakery and coffee.
The edition marks the sixteenth year of the Gelato Festival World Masters. It debuted in Florence in 2010 as a local contest inspired by the first gelato recipe, devised by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti in 1559. It spread across Italy and Europe and, from 2017, to the United States, before becoming a worldwide championship that drew more than 3,500 gelato makers in the 2017-2021 edition.
What this means for gelato makers in Australia
Competitions like this show how far a well-balanced recipe, good technique and a confident story can take a gelato maker. If you are building your own flavour range, the right artisan gelato machines and a solid grounding from Carpigiani Gelato University are the place to start, and Majors Group can help with both in Australia. Our team can also talk you through Rubicone ingredients for your next signature flavour.
Carpigiani in Australia — Majors Group
Majors Group is the official Carpigiani distributor in Australia: machines, Rubicone ingredients, ISA cabinets, Techfrost blast freezers, packaging, Carpigiani Gelato University training, finance and a national service team.
Source: Carpigiani news. Rewritten for Australia by Majors Group.