Florian Confiserie
Florian Confiserie is the Riviera’s ultimate sweet tooth paradise. Once a famed turn-of-the-century chocolate factory located on the Old Port of Nice—one customer was Henri Matisse-Florian later branched out into candied citrus and jams. Today the family-owned Florian specializes in confections made from flowers, grown in the same fields near Grasse that serve the perfume industry. The company’s floral goodies, all available by mail order, range from a violet-flavored pastis aperitif to rose-olive paste for hors d’oeuvres. Violet jam is delicious with pan-fried foie gras, and the newest taste treats are fresh rose or violet tagliatelle. Dessert ideas abound, from crystallized rose-petal shortbread cakes—made with the same May roses that go into Chanel N° 5—to jasmine and verbena-filled chocolates, along with delicate flower liqueurs to wash it all down. Florian’s main headquarters are in the spectacular Gorges du Loup, in a 19th-century village mill perched above the Loup River in Pont-du-Loup, near France’s violet-producing capital Tourrettes-sur-Loup. Visitors are welcome in the factory, where mounds of bitter oranges, lemons and bergamot, plucked from the nearby citrus groves, are sliced, pressed and dipped in chocolate before your eyes. Next door, Florian also offers cooking classes at the Atelier de la Cuisine des Fleurs, where imaginative chef Yves Terrillon teaches budding cooks the culinary secrets of begonia (crunchy and fruity), pansies (velvety and nutty), and nasturtiums (a peppery radish taste) as well as roses, jasmine, violets and saffron, which is made from the dried stigma of the saffron crocus.
Factory: 04.93.59.32.91; Boutique: 14 quai Papacino, Nice, 04.93.55.43.50. Atelier de Cuisine: 04.92.11.06.94.
Originally published in the March 2009 issue of France Today.
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