She is a craft profession whose growth could greatly benefit from global warming in the years to come, it is that of ice cream seller. The persistence of high temperatures will only prolong the tasting of sorbets and other ice creams beyond summer.
Will the profession see an influx of employees undergoing retraining, executives in search of meaning whose dream is to open a refrigerated truck, on Wednesday afternoon, near the goldfish pond in the municipal garden? Installed in an industrial wasteland in Planguenoual (Côtes-d’Armor) since 2021, Christelle Ouléa did not wait for the mercury to soar to launch her ice cream workshop, created six years ago while she was still working, Paris, for the BNP Paribas bank. His small business is called C’Doudeh!, in reference to a very popular expression in Ivory Coast, his parents’ country of origin: “It’s sweet, deh! »meaning “it’s delicious, it’s pleasant”.
Monday October 16, Christelle Ouléa, 43, will participate in the final of a culinary competition, the Taste and Health prize, organized by the MAAF and placed under the aegis of starred chef Thierry Marx. She will make one of her specialties there: a sorbet mixing raspberry and bissap (hibiscus flower juice) whose characteristic is to display a Nutri-score classified B. The former student of Gérard Taurin – Meilleur Ouvrier de France and world champion of ice cream – has developed a range dedicated to crossbreeding. Sold in supermarkets in Lamballe or at local events, its creations combine cassava and salted butter caramel, mango and kaffir lime, melon and passion fruit, avocado, basil and pistachio…
“The passion for cooking”
“I wanted to go against the grain of what the food industry is offering, that is to say ice creams that are too rich in sugar, additives and colorings. Also put an end to the classic vanilla-strawberry or chocolate-vanilla saturated with aromas”, explains Christelle, in the middle of her 20 square meter laboratory which she will leave at the start of 2024 for premises ten times larger. She will also recruit an employee and launch into direct sales. “My production has doubled in two years”she congratulates herself, measuring the progress made since her change of direction.
Project manager in a subsidiary specializing in BNP Paribas events, Christelle Ouléa worked for twenty years behind the scenes at Roland-Garros, a service provider for the clients of the tennis tournament’s partner bank. Regularly, she invited colleagues to dinner at her home around African dishes that she had learned to prepare at a very young age from her mother, notably bissap ice cream. Daughter of a worker at the Renault factory in Flins (Yvelines) who arrived in France in the 1950s, the holder of a BTS in real estate professions ended up branching out: “However, I was very fulfilled in my work, my tasks were very diversified. But the passion for cooking was too strong. The desire to also share »she confides.
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