Luxury French Chocolate Maker Valrhona Opens a School in Brooklyn

This week the luxury French chocolate company Valrhona opened a new school and hub for their brand in the U.S., L'École Valrhona Brooklyn. Though the school has hosted a couple of confectionery classes already, this week it hosted a two-day conference with parties for visiting chefs and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the school.

Frédéric Bau, a famous French pastry chef who mentored under the macaron-famous Pierre Hermé, opened Valrhona’s first school in 1989 in Tain-l'Hermitage, France. There are now four, including one more in France and one in Japan. Bau was here for a couple of days to celebrate the occasion, along with the Valrhona crew from other schools and pastry chefs such as Stephanie Prida of Manresa, and William Werner of Craftsman and Wolves, who ran a pastry pop-up earlier in the day.