Remarkable numbers

It may seem strange but at Sigep in Rimini (It-aly), last held from January 18th to the 22nd, you can get lost among its corridors, the endless offers and the thousands of booths. The fair confirms itself as a forge of ideas, innovation and discovery of future trends in the confec-tionary world. To make this even more evident, Vision Plaza was created: a hub for develop-ment of the entire food service dessert in-dustry. Here, crowded talks took place, where industry experts discussed how consumption is changing, what are the latest eating-out trends, as well as the latest developments in the industry.

Internationally speaking

The percentage of foreign exhibitors, either present by staff or by representatives, is equal to 20%. These foreign exhibitors came from 30 countries, with the most coming from Germany, France and Spain. The presence of international buyers was in constant growth, especially from South East Asia, Arab Emirates, North Africa, United States and South American countries.

The main events

The most anticipated event was the Gelato World Cup, which saw Italy reach the highest step of the podium. In anticipation of the 2021 edi-tion of both the Juniors and the Female World Champi-onships, the “Star of Sugar” competition took place, with the theme “The journey of coffee throughout history and legend.” It was a spectacular competition, which foresaw the creation of surprising sugar sculptures consisting in cast, blown, pulled, frost-ed and pressed sugar, along with the novelty item of the “travel dessert,” which, per the competition rules, must have a shelf-life of at least 5 days at room temperature. The new “Sugar King,” beat-ing his rivals, is Davide Pisa-no, whereas Andrea Restuc-cia is the winner of the Italian Championship of Senior Pas-try Chefs. He stood out thanks to his mermaid ice sculpture, a theme which recurred in his fruit-flavoured gelato cake. He was also recognized for the best recipe development. The best sugar piece was awarded to Lorenzo Puca, whereas the best chocolate piece went to Massimo Pica. There was no shortage of events dedicated to coffee. In the Coffee Arena, the Italian Barista Champion-ships were held, granting ac-cess to World Coffee Events. This edition was in conjunction with A.B.Tech Expo, offering a Bakery Are-na which held the fourth edition of “Bread in the City,” an international bakery contest. The competition saw eight teams battle each oth-er, each team consisting of two bakers and one coach. The teams came from the Netherlands, Spain, Peru, Japan, China, Germany and Tai-wan. The competition was won by the Neth-erlands, followed by Germany in second place and Japan in third.

In memory of Federico Fellini

The cultural soul of the event was cer-tainly Felliniesque. The would-be 100th birthday of the grand maestro of Italian film, Federico Fellini, born in Rimini, was celebrated in various moments through-out the tradeshow. During the inaugura-tion, a giant cake standing three meters tall entered the scene. It was created by Ampi (Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani – The Academy of Italian Pastry Chefs); the flavour of the cake was noth-ing less than Fellini’s favourite – zuppa inglese. On January 20th, his birthday, the bakers in the Bakery Arena presented sculptures following this theme. Howev-er, the leitmotif for the entire time was a “sweet tasting” of the exhibition dedi-cated to him, which included unreleased images, unique photographs, and snap shots of the filmmaker’s memories and of his movies.