Honours for lifetime achievement 2026
We celebrated two gelato legends at GELATISSIMO!
During the GELATISSIMO 2026 in Stuttgart, the trade fair presented honorary awards for lifetime achievements to two outstanding personalities in the gelato industry: Mrs. Augusta Corte Levou, who has been working in Germany for more than 55 years as a true ambassador for Italian gelato tradition, and Mr. Marco Venturino, a Ligurian gelato expert, a winner of several international competitions and the leader in the worldwide ranking for two years.
The award was presented by GELATISSIMO together with the specialist publishing house Editrade and ITALCAM, the Munich-Stuttgart Italian Chamber of Commerce. The award presentation ceremony took place during GELATISSIMO 2026 in Stuttgart.
The guests of honour
An ambassador for authentic ice cream enjoyment
Augusta Corte Levou is the guardian of a family tradition that she passionately upholds in her Gelateria Tosca in Essen (Holsterhausen). For 55 years it has been known for its authentic, artisanal gelato made from fresh, high-quality ingredients. Its philosophy is a homage to purity, and Augusta Corte Levou always strives to show that craftsmanship, freshness, and the excellence of the ingredients are the true keys to successful gelato.
In 2012, she joined with other European gelato makers to declare March 24 “International Artisanal Gelato Day.”
With passion and tradition lead to the Gelato-Olympus
Marco Venturino began his career in 1996 in Varazze, nnot with a shop, but with an ice cream lab, in order to meet the demands of the hospitality market and boost small-scale direct sales. He also demonstrated his passion for ice cream by using a hand-operated ice cream cart to sell gelato on the streets of his Ligurian town — an iconic sign for his love of craftsmanship. In 2001, he opened the Gelateria I Giardini di Marzo in Varazze (Savona) and in 2018, a second one in Celle Ligure (Savona).
Marco Venturino was officially inducted into the “Hall of Fame” with the prestigious first place in the Gelato Festival World Ranking, the world's most renowned ranking of gelato makers. In January 2025, he was a member of the jury for the preliminary selections for Spain and Portugal at the Gelato Festival World Masters, “an experience that once again showed that ice cream can be pure art,” as he says himself.
