Gelato Festival America is dedicated to promoting the culture of artisan Italian gelato in the US. This festival took off last year in 2017 and got quite the response.
Founder of Gelato Festival, Gabriele Poli said that “We want to turn this into an annual, national event for Americans.”
Gelato Festival is looking forward to touring eight US cities including New Jersey, Colorado, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Dallas, Scottsdale, and Tucson.
The team is expecting to attract at least 100,000 visitors plus more than 100 artisanal gelato chefs.
Whether you’re checking out the festival again or for the first time, here are some of the most amazing highlights, according to Palazzoni.
#1: ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT GELATO
“GFA is one of those rare food festivals where, once you enter, you can forget about your wallet and just indulge in all the gelato you can eat in one day. There is one rule: visitors have to taste each competing flavor (out of approximately 15) at least once before getting seconds.”
#2: GELATO SCHOOL
Award-winning gelato artisans and experts from Frozen Dessert University by Carpigiani (Baron W. Von Gottsaker) and Carpigiani Gelato University(Marco Filippelli) will share what it takes to be a gelato chef and professional. So grab your pens and jot down their techniques and top business advice.
#3: GELATO EATING CONTEST
Test your limits and see how fast you can eat five cups of gelato. As the guiding principle, don’t chew; swallow and drink warm water for best results. Winner will receive a gallon of gelato (chosen from the flavors used for the competition).
#4: KID’S JURY
Here’s a chance for young foodies to learn from the chefs and vote for their favorite gelato flavors. These panels are often fun and eye-opening, since in addition to asking some serious questions about the origin of the raw materials used, fats and sugars as well as recipes and the history behind them, “kids are very genuine and without filters, so they say what they think.”
#5: MOBILE GELATO LABORATORY
Giving you an insider look at gelato production, this expandable 38’ Gooseneck trailer—valued at over $1 million—is going to be the world largest frozen dessert laboratory on wheels. Inside the 800 square-foot space when fully expanded, you’ll find up to eight chefs operating the most innovative machines by Carpigiani enough to produce 6,000 pounds of gelato per day, with large windows plus cameras and screens to live stream the entire production process.
#6: QUALIFYING COMPETITION FOR THE GELATO FESTIVAL WORLD MASTERS 2021
Watch the who’s who of the gelato world battle it out for a spot to become the World Master of Gelato! Artisans and chefs have to go through a rigorous selection process to enter this qualifying competition, which leads to an American grand finale that determines the final 36 global competitors in Italy in 2021. So far, there are already 25 gelato makers per city registering to compete. And according to Poli, this year’s entries are especially exciting, since “new machines and new technologies are bringing new ways to make artisanal gelato with much less sugar. You’ll find that some flavors can be totally sugar-free and still be very tasty.”
For instance, the folks at GFA have already identified some amazing flavors: Bernice’s Scotcharoos by Little Sparrow Gelato in Georgia is described by the chef as;
“Grandma’s secret recipe—A nostalgic butterscotch gelato, filled with chocolate chips, crunchy rice crispies, and a smooth peanut butter swirl.”There’s also a Texas Hill Country Lemon Lavender flavor by The Turtle Gelateria in Brownwood, Texas, which infuses just the right amount of lavender to enhance the lemon flavor and “rounding its tart edges.”
