Tea or avocado? What’s your favourite ice-cream?
The south-east of France, like Italy, is famous for its artisanal ice-cream in a multitude of flavours – some more unusual than others!
We visited one well-known one - Fenocchio in Place Rossetti in Nice’s Old Town which prides itself on its large range which is regularly added to – this summer’s nouveautés are a zesty combava (in English ‘kaffir’ lime, or makrut lime), a citrus fruit from tropical Asia, or thé bergamote – Earl Grey tea.
Jamel Amiri, who runs the shop, said their ice-cream is made in the hills near Nice. “It’s made at La Gaude in the back-country. We’ve we’ve been making our own ice-cream for the shop in place Rossetti since 1966 and we use top-quality unprocessed ingredients,” he said.
They have a choice of 59 ice-creams and 35 sorbets – 94 flavours in total – from classics to surprising ones like rosemary or thyme or tomato and basil and are open until midnight.
Mr Amiri said some of their most popular flavours this year include lavender, poppy (“it tastes a bit like grenadine, light and sweet’”) and avocado as well as tourte de blettes – the local Nice sweet chard tart.
Fenocchio is part of the Confédération Nationale des Glaciers de France (CFGF), which groups together ice-cream parlours which make their own ice-cream.
It recently launched a labelling scheme its members may apply for called Glaces Artisanales de France, charte qualité. You can find some of those which already have it at this link.
Fenocchio, which is still run by members of the Fenocchio family, opened two extra shops in Nice in recent years, at 6 rue de la Poissonerie and 25 Blvd Jean Jaurès – useful to know on busy nights in the Old Town.
