About Advanced Gourmet
Equipment and Design
Advanced Gourmet Equipment and Design provides the most advanced ice cream - gelato makers / batch freezing equipment, blast freezers and gelato and ice cream display solutions to the USA Market. As the exclusive importer and distributor for Cattabriga, Techfrost and Ciam, clients are able to rely on the very best equipment with reliability for their gelato shop, ice cream store, bakery, or frozen dessert establishment.
The founding team served in executive and managerial positions with well-known gelato, ice cream and soft serve production equipment manufacturers (Carpigiani and Stoelting). Their vast experience creates the foundation for their passion to provide expert guidance, high quality products, and support to all their clients.
Clients throughout the U.S. agree that AG is the most capable and professional source for those opening an ice cream or gelato store or building frozen dessert concepts, offering hands on gelato and ice cream production training as well as industry specific knowledge and data required to establish a thorough gelato shop or ice cream store business plan. AG also provides full store design services and their design team is available to work with clients to ensure that their individual goals are represented throughout the design phase.
The Advanced Gourmet owners have worked with chains like Whole Foods, Ingles, Hard Rock, Ritz Carlton, Haagen Dazs, Cinnabon and others and have helped open hundreds of ice cream/gelato shops and professional kitchens and restaurants throughout the United States and Canada.
Meet Our Team
Jim Hall
Jim Hall is the founder, co-owner and managing director of Advanced Gourmet Equipment & Design. Prior to establishing Advanced Gourmet in 2005, Jim served as president of Carpigiani-USA, during an impressive decade of sustained growth.
For over twenty-three years, he has served as an innovative and respected leader in the artisan frozen dessert and professional display solutions industry within the USA working with chains like Whole Foods, Albertsons, Hard Rock Café and more. On a daily basis, Jim and his team works with individual clients and organizations to assist in concept development, store design and equipment specification. Throughout the years, Jim has continually developed a genuine passion for the evolving, exciting and varied frozen dessert industry.
Wally Becker
Wally Becker is co-owner and director of service for Advanced Gourmet Equipment & Design. With over 25 years’ experience in the frozen dessert equipment industry working with...
Stoelting, Carpigiani and for the last twelve years, Advanced Gourmet. Wally is responsible for all operational, technical and mechanical support relating to Advanced Gourmet including after sales service, installation, national technical training and support. Wally trains and oversees national service agents throughout North America in providing technical support to retail restaurants and frozen dessert establishments.
Chef Plamen
Growing up in Bulgaria, Chef Plamen is no stranger to the kitchen. Spending much of his youth cooking alongside his mother and grandmother, his passion for food ignited. After moving...
to the States in 2008, Plamen quickly turned his lifelong passion into a dream career. Plamen earned his degree in Culinary Arts and joined the Advanced Gourmet Team. As the Corporate Chef for Advanced Gourmet, Plamen travels the country training and introducing chefs and operators to the Advanced Gourmet line of equipment. In addition to his excellent cooking skills, Chef Plamen has a deep understanding of frozen desserts and offers training for chefs and individuals to promote product recipe development and frozen dessert recipe balancing.