La Manufacture de Chocolat à Paris
Special to Road Trips for Foodies
In the 70’s, Alain Ducasse is a young apprentice cook with Michel Guérard. Passing by Eugénie-les-Bains, Gaston Lenôtre introduces him to the world of confectionary. At the low season, in winter, Alain Ducasse meets him in Paris, where they are introduced to Michel Chaudun. He then discovers the pastry profession that quite literally makes his head spin, makes him giddy. After this, he works with Alain Chapel in Mionnay, using his days off to work beside Maurice Bernachon, artisan-chocolatier from Lyon. From this time dates his passion for chocolate.
For over 30 years, his dream of chocolate never left him… and has taken true form today, with the creation of the Manufacture, under the direction of Nicolas Berger. The chef wanted to make his own chocolate to serve in his restaurants. Making chocolate, of course, but only provided they could fully master its taste. To achieve this, it must be made from start to finish, initially with the bean, subject to stringent selection.
Since the very beginning, the chef’s culinary philosophy is based on a rigorous selection of quality products, fully expressing their original flavours and fragrances.
Passionate about the quest for the essential, tastes of origins rather than original, Alain Ducasse and Nicolas have selected the beans based on their purity as much as for their personality: a dozen provenances, and as many identities as unique tastes. Each bean is worked according to its character: more or less of conching, light or extensive cooking, very little addition of cocoa butter, less sugar… The origin is key in discovering the Alain Ducasse chocolate.
“La Manufacture de chocolat” is born from the desire to return to the source, the very essence of what chocolate is made of: precise, meticulous and creative work, a craft that works with bespoke machinery, a drawn out process… In a world in constant motion and at an increasingly rapid pace, this environment returns to a slower, more patient time, of work well done, on a more human scale, and enduring.
Come and taste the all-time favorites and reinvented gourmet flavors at the Manufacture: pure chocolate ganaches, gourmet ganaches, pralines, truffles or bite-size pieces. And also chocolate bars that come in 44 different flavors.
The Manufacture supplies all Alain Ducasse restaurants in chocolate bonbons, bars, and even chocolate coatings for desserts. Since the 18th of February, an emblematic dessert from the Paris, London and Monaco restaurants has been created with chocolate from the Manufacture.
Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, Manufacture à Paris, 40 rue de la Roquette, Paris. At Galeries Lafayette Maison, 35 boulevard Haussman, Paris, the hours from Monday through Saturday are 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (’til 9 p.m. on Thursday).
Here’s a video about Ducasse’s project:
(Photo and video courtesy of Alain Ducasse)
