Zélikha Dinga hosts a sundae special in Montmartre

In the lower gardens of Paris’s Musée de Montmartre, chef and food artist Zélikha Dinga is setting up an aperitif overlooking the neighbourhood’s secluded, sloping vineyard. Tonight is an annual gathering with nine of her closest friends, all of whom met at school. 

“This is our neighbourhood, our home, and it’s rare to get the 10 of us together at the same time,” says Dinga of the troop of thirtysomething-year-old women, as she layers the table with swaths of brightly coloured silks purchased from the nearby fabric market, Marché Saint-Pierre. Among the group are Morgane Souris, co-founder of restaurant Dandelion, photographer Emma Le Doyen and gallery director Leslie Kabla.

‘Perfect to cut through the gelato’s sweetness’ is pink Pét-Nat

The spread reflects the output of Dinga’s culinary studio, Caro Diario: colourful, celebratory and inclined towards sweetness. Dinga is known for her fanciful towering tiered cakes, having parlayed her skills into a breadth of high-concept delights for clients including Louis Vuitton, Loewe and Bottega Veneta. In the spring of 2023, she travelled to Turin for a month-long internship at Mara dei Boschi, one of the city’s most innovative ice-cream parlours, before launching Caro Diaro’s annual gelato pop-up in Paris that summer. “I was obsessed and wanted to know how it was made: it’s such a science – the sugar ratio and temperature is extremely specific. I geeked out,” she says. Her secret is leaving the base to rest overnight before churning it, allowing “the flavours to develop more deeply”.

As guests arrive in a flurry of colourful summer looks, Dinga scoops homemade gelato into candy-coloured and striped Murano glasses by Laguna B, along with glasses of pink Vivanterre Pét-Nat from Beaujolais. “It’s dry, slightly tannic, with a hint of skin contact – perfect to cut through the sweetness of the gelato,” she says. 

Tonight’s flavours celebrate Italian classics using the finest French ingredients. Dinga’s strawberry sorbet is made from the Gariguette variety – “not too sweet and very aromatic” – while the cream for her fior di latte gelato comes from Normandy and has a “very high fat content”, she says. The final sorbet flavour is made from 100 per cent Venezuelan cacao. “I think this is the best recipe I’ve created,” says Dinga, happily scooping up second servings as the sun sets over the city.