Two years ago, Stéphanie Meloni was still behind a desk at a Monégasque law firm, twenty years into a career built on procedure and rigour. Today, she runs Maison Meloni, an artisan ice cream house in Menton built on something altogether more concrete.
The change didn't come suddenly, she told Menton-Presse. "Like a lot of people, at some point, you stop recognising yourself in what you do." What followed was a slow pull toward creation, sharing, and something tangible. Pastry-making offered a path that matched her instincts without abandoning the discipline she already had.
She trained for a CAP pâtissier as an independent candidate, then travelled for further training, first to Bologna's international ice cream university, then to Yssingeaux. "I'm a complete beginner," she says of those early days, without a trace of false modesty.
What guides her now is the product itself, sourced locally wherever she can manage it. Eight lemon trees in her own garden supply part of her production, picked and turned into ice cream the same day. The rest comes from trusted fruit growers in the hills behind Menton, ten minutes down the road. "I'm never afraid of running short," she says.