Unbelievable flavours at Hungarian Gelato Competition 2024: here is the ice cream of the year! – PHOTOS
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The annual Hungarian Gelato Competition took place once again this year, with pastry chef Nándor Bergmann winning the top prize for his innovative dessert, Pumpkin Seed Sorbet with Red Berries. Awards were given across five different categories in this popular contest.
The competition’s aim
According to the press release from the Hungarian Confectioners’ Guild, the 2024 competition aimed to promote traditional, high-quality artisanal gelato. The goal is to encourage Hungarian confectioners to offer superior gelato to their customers, fostering a demand for healthy and high-quality handcrafted products.
As Index writes, this year’s event had a festival atmosphere, held as part of a citywide celebration where participants created their entries in front of an audience. This setup allowed consumers to gain a deeper understanding of the intricate process of gelato-making.
The competition was held in a fully equipped gelato laboratory, utilising three professional freezers, and ran from morning until early afternoon. Following the competition, a series of entertaining and educational presentations related to gelato took place, alongside a professional exhibition that added further variety to the program.
Record number of gelato entries
In honour of the host city Kecskemét, a new category was introduced: the “Apricot Gelato” category. This aimed to promote the “Kecskemét Hungarian Apricot” and the nationally significant “Kecskemét Apricot Brandy”, both noted in the Hungarian Heritage Repository.
This year saw a record number of entries, with 90 gelatos competing across five categories. Along with award-winning Hungarian gelatos from previous years, a total of 130 varieties were available for tasting throughout the day-long event.
