Meeting with Zélikha Dinga alias Caro Diario
Every month, we're meeting up with someone we like whose life or work gravitates around food, to share their tips for a fine art of living.
Welcome to Journal de Table!
Zélikha Dinga, aka Caro Diario, is a Parisian chef and food stylist renowned for her artistic approach to cooking. After studying literature and cinema, she obtained her CAP in cookery at the Ferrandi school. She worked in the kitchens of Bao in London, Belle Maison and Caillebotte in Paris, before deciding to set up her own business in 2020. She created Caro Diario, a project in which she fuses cuisine, art and fashion, collaborating with Prada, Gucci, Paco Rabanne and Alexander McQueen. Her world is Italian renaissance, zoom 2.5, and a guaranteed minimalist baroque effect.
Tableware according to Zélikha
What inspired you to take up cooking?
I used to love to eat, so I learnt to cook at home, but never thought of making a career out of it, and it was a planned move to London that made me dare to take up cooking.
What is your dream for Caro Diario?
I think I'm already living my dream with Caro Diario, but let's just say that it's to continue to have access to increasingly accomplished creative projects while maintaining a human-scale way of working.
What place does colour occupy in your kitchen and on your tables?
The two are intimately intertwined. I think of my tables and the colours of the dishes that will be presented on them simultaneously. Sometimes in contrasting ways and other times more sober and uniform. It also depends on the space into which these projects fit or the identity of the client I'm working for.
What are the secret ingredients of a perfect dinner?
Whether it's a dinner for 6 or 50: a heterogeneous group of guests, a relaxed atmosphere that makes you want to stay and chat for hours, and an intention in the art of the table or the composition of the menu. What's your favourite dish when you entertain? Linguine with bottarga! What's your favourite tableware item? Ruched napkins are brilliant! They make you want to hang them around your wrist like a little table bracelet.