Timballo’s gelato shop sure of the circle, in the sense that it completed the composition of professionalism in the wake of kitchen brigades of the past centuries, where cooks, pastry chefs, chocolatiers and decorators all worked. By training and competing together, it is possible to learn from each other. Ideas and advice can be exchanged. The gelato chef today cannot limit himself to scooping balls onto a cone. He has to have a broader professionalism that touches on cold pastries, desserts, chocolate. When the Gelato World Cup was born, this need was not yet felt, and this event has helped fulfil it. The competition plays an important role as a trailblazer of trends. Looking abroad, in these twenty years of the World Cup, in which countries has the attention to gelato grown the most? One of the first destinations of the selections abroad was Buenos Aires, where the Italian tradition of artisanal gelato is very much alive. There are numerous gelato shops managed by our fellow compatriots who immigrated there in the early 1900s. Just as it happens here, traditions are influenced by local habits, giving life to original flavours such as Dulce de leche. If in South America, Argentina is the number one country for the success and level of gelato shops, in Brazil, Peru and Uruguay, the number of businesses and the level of the gelato chefs’ preparation is growing. Personally, I have received a consultancy request from Chile, a sign of interest in gelato also in this country. The World Cup has also opened up to the Far East, as demonstrated by the participation of South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan in this year’s edition. I was surprised by China. I could not have imagined such skill in the creation of gelato. The number of professionals is limited, but their preparation is truly noteworthy because they work hard, study and leave nothing to chance. For years now Japan has shown to be a top-ranking country for desserts with pastry and gelato shops with a high level of professionalism. It should be emphasized that the development of gelato abroad would not have been possible without the entire industry which exports machines, display cases, ingredients. In this sense, the sponsor companies of the World Cup make a fundamental contribution not only to the competition, but to the entire industry. 31
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