RIMINI, Italy – The Association of Italian Gelato Makers will as always be at SIGEP with a series of initiatives for highlighting gelato maker´s professionalism and creativity. It can be found at this edition in Hall A7, which will host the contests ´Alberto Pica Memorial – Gianduja-flavoured Gelato´ and ´1000 ideas for a new flavour Gelato of the year´.
A panel of judges will be consigned the participants´ entries from Sunday 24th to Tuesday 26th January. The awards ceremonies will take place on Tuesday at 5:00 pm in the South Foyer´s agorà.
This year there will be a particularly touching remembrance of Alberto Pica, master gelato maker who passed away recently and a reference point for decades for Italian artisan gelato and SIGEP.
The program also includes the international contest The excellence of gelato cakes, which opens on 23rd January at 10:30 am.
Their will be daily events promoted by the Association at SIGEP 2016. These will include the presentation of the initiative Club degli Ambasciatori del Gelato nel Mondo (Gelato´s worldwide ambassadors) (23rd January), whereas on 25th January, Japanese master gelato maker Taizo Shibano will present Gelato prepared with nitrogen; on 27th January a meeting will be held with the youngsters of the contest ´Don´t Freeze our Smiles´ to elect the flavour of solidarity.
Ninth edition of “Don´t Freeze Our Smiles”
There is a very busy program of proceedings at which the key players at SIGEP will be the boys and girls of ´Don´t Freeze Our Smiles´, a project to prevent bullying which forms a network of artisan gelato parlours, schools and families. 1,300 junior secondary school pupils have been involved so far. At the 2015 edition, five classes from the junior secondary schools of Misano, Riccione, Rimini, Santarcangelo and San Mauro Pascoli took part.
With educational events and in-depth coverage of functional flavours, technical journalism workshops, mini gelato and confectionery workshops, the 9th edition of the project will end at SIGEP 27th January. Key players, as always, are the youngsters, who will exchange the items made, things learnt and, ´dulcis in fundo´, give awards to the gelato parlour of the network ´Assaggi di amicizia´ (Tastes of friendship) along with Nicolò, the very young master chef ..
Proceedings will get under way at 9:30 am, with specific workshops organized by the sector´s leading companies. The one on technical journalism is offered by publishers Editrade (South Foyer); the educational dedicated to functional tastes by the The Italian Gelato Masters, (C1); the workshop on gelato´s nutritional value and the relative preparation process offered by the Produe Mari association (A6/C6); the mini workshop on gelato offered by MO.CA (C5). Lastly, also organized by MO.CA, a delegation of youngsters will follow a special performance by Nicolò, their 13 year-old contemporary, winner of Masterchef Junior, and the presentation of his Dolce dell´amicizia (Friendship Cake).
At 10:15 am there will be a ceremony for assigning diplomas of merit to the gelato parlours of the ´Assaggi di amicizia´ network and the partner companies that supported the project, offering workshop activities.
At 10:45 am in the South Foyer arena, the classes taking part in this edition will personally describe their work to the institutions and gelato makers who made it possible, sharing video clips, designs, poems, self-made items and songs. The testimonial of this year´s project will be the very young Nicolò Marcucci, Junior Masterchef Italia 2015.
The pupils´ press conference will follow, with the participation of the Local Education Office, the schools´ headmasters, Patrizia Cecchi, Rimini Fiera Business Unit 1 Manager; Franco Cesare Puglisi, director of Editrade, Maurizio Bartolucci, chairman of the Onofrio Francolini association, Rita Gatti, lecturer in Pedagogy at Bologna, Marcello Para, Confartigianato Rimini; CNA Rimini; Fabio Franchini, manager, Special Programs and External Relations MO.CA..
The icing on the cake will be the distribution of ´Tastes of friendship´, vouchers that give the right to free samples, with which gelato parlours support the schools´ project, and the award ceremony for the 26 ´Gelato artisans for a day´, who will take part in the workshop dedicated to them by Mo.Co. and the network´s gelato parlours.
´Don´t Freeze our Smiles´ is a project promoted by Rimini Fiera – SIGEP, with the support of Mo.Co.SpA and in collaboration with CNA Rimini and Confartigianato Rimini, Rimini´s Local Education Office, Uni.Rimini and Fondazione Francolini.
SIGEP 2016 AT A GLANCE
Dates: 23 – 27 January 2016; Organizers: Rimini Fiera spa; Patronages and collaborations: Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Emilia Romagna Region, Rimini Municipality, ICE Italian Foreign Trade Institute; edition: 37th; frequency: annual; classification: international; admittance: trade members only; hours: 9:30 am . 6:00 pm, last day 9:30 am . 3:00 pm (3:00 . 5:00 pm only with online tickets); www.sigep.it – #Sigep2016
