Inside Cedric et la Chocolaterie, the new Paris chocolate shop from the celebrity pastry chef Cedric Grolet — a tattooed 40-year-old with boutiques from St.-Tropez to Singapore — a wall of molten chocolate sluices downward, dazzling the fans who line up daily to enter the hallowed space.
Paris has experienced a veritable chocolate wave in recent years . Numerous new shops, created by French culinary legends and award-winning young upstarts alike, have been expanding the city’s offerings and elevating Paris into a strong contender for the title of world’s greatest chocolate metropolis, up there with Brussels and Zurich.
In addition to Mr. Grolet’s boutique, 34-year-old Elwood Bouazza, the former head of chocolate-making for Pierre Hermé — perhaps France’s most famous living pastry chef, courtesy of his masterful macarons — opened Fleurs de Chocolats in the 16th Arrondissement. And Nina Métayer, who was named the World’s Best Pastry Chef last year at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, rolled out her first chocolate outlet in the luxurious Samaritaine department store.
The approach to chocolate has been evolving as well, with more chefs championing ethical sourcing, sustainable agriculture and raw materials from small growers around the world.
“A new generation of fine chocolate makers and pastry chefs in Paris no longer sees chocolate as a commodity,” said Frank Homann, founder of Xoco, a company in Paris that supplies chocolate from independent cacao farmers in Central America to European chefs, shops and restaurants. “They’re treating it as a living ingredient with cultural and sensory depth.”
Here are the best of the new shops.
Cedric et la Chocolaterie
The name of Mr. Grolet’s new shop translates as “Cedric and the Chocolate Factory,” and following the Willy Wonka allusion, the space and creations exude a whimsical, childlike vibe. Under a ceiling hung with giant sculptural chocolate nuts, the counters entice with chocolate bars in playful, nutlike shapes (oversize flat cashews, garlands of hazelnuts) as well as marshmallow-filled chocolate bears and trompe l’oeil cakes resembling lemons and cacao pods (€35 or about $41).
Sophisticated palates are not completely ignored, however. The boutique’s most impressive bar is a trompe l’oeil tablet, made from a mix of Peruvian and São Tomé dark chocolates, that appears to be topped by slim vanilla stalks (€16). In fact, the real vanilla hides within, adding fragrant accents to a rich dark chocolate ganache.
Cedric et la Chocolaterie: 33, avenue de l’Opéra, 2nd Arrondissement.
Jade Genin
Connoisseurs will find additional rewards next door on Avenue de l’Opéra, a wide boulevard leading to Paris’s grand 19th-century opera house that has become the heart of the city’s chocolate scene.
Created three years ago by Jade Genin — the 33-year-old daughter of the veteran Paris chocolatier Jacques Genin — the elegantly minimalist namesake boutique could almost be mistaken for a jewelry shop: white walls, gold accents, glass cases lined with small, precise chocolates (some of them flecked with gold leaf).
Ms. Genin’s signature creations, pyramid-shaped filled chocolates, are inspired by the pointed tip of the ancient Egyptian obelisk towering over the Place de la Concorde. (A box of 15 costs €16.) Many of their names (Sahara, Kerala, Nora Maya) and supporting ingredients (Indian cardamom, Sri Lankan cinnamon, Thai basil) also evoke distant lands. A Xoco client, Ms. Genin mainly uses chocolate from a single cacao farm in Honduras and fashions her treats in a kitchen adjoining the boutique.
Lately Ms. Genin has been using the space to develop a new Paris-inspired concoction: a large, rectangular chocolate tile whose undulating surface and green-blue decorative coloring are inspired by the Seine.
Jade Genin: 33, avenue de l’Opéra, 2nd Arrondissement.
Infiniment Chocolat
Laphroaig Scotch whisky. Seaweed and yuzu fruit gel. Olive oil with bits of black olive. These are a few of the beguiling ingredients that flavor the filled squares and dice-size cubes sold at Pierre Hermé’s first chocolate shop, which opened last year in the Opéra district (€14 for a 50-gram box).
Inside, the noted design firm Jouin Manku (whose client list includes luxury hotels like the Plaza Athénée in Paris and La Mamounia in Marrakesh, Morocco) has deployed dark wood paneling and copper surfaces to evoke the colors of chocolate.
Fans of Mr. Hermé’s famous macarons will appreciate his chocolates filled with crumbled macaron shells and signature flavor medleys like Mogador (milk chocolate and passion fruit) and Ispahan (lychee, raspberry and rose).
Devotees of single-origin creations will find a wide selection of bars (€10 to €13) made from milk, dark or “blond” chocolate — Mr. Hermé’s yellowish, caramelized version of white chocolate — which in some cases bear the names of the farms that grew the cacao trees, like Plantation Millot in Madagascar and Hacienda Eleonor in Ecuador.
Infiniment Chocolat: 23, boulevard des Capucines, 2nd Arrondissement.
La Chocolaterie William Artigue
Anyone who has enjoyed fruit or vegetable jelly squares at L’Arpège restaurant — the Paris gastronomic temple run by the chef Alain Passard — or chocolates served at the Ruinart Champagne house in Reims might already know the work of 33-year-old William Artigue, who trained with Mr. Genin and another star of Paris chocolate, Patrick Roger.
Mr. Artigue’s two-year-old boutique is a minimalist space nestled among the wine bars and indie fashion boutiques in the Canal St.-Martin neighborhood. Two geometric, staircase-like podiums showcase his creations, which use chocolate from Nicolas Berger, a Paris-area roaster and supplier who procures his raw materials directly from individual farms in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Those creations range from a chocolate-and-biscuit adaptation of France’s classic tarte Tatin — a Gallic cousin of apple pie (€25) — to single small chocolates, each featuring a lush filling made with a regional French nut: walnuts from Périgord, chestnuts from Ardèche, almonds from the Drôme (€1.80 each).
Mr. Artigue is particularly proud of a chocolate square packed with almond-hazelnut filling and topped with a tiny, crispy tile of buckwheat and vanilla. And rightfully so: Last year it won the top chocolate award from Fou de Pâtisserie magazine, a bible for pastry chefs, chocolatiers and sweet tooths.
La Chocolaterie William Artigue: 30, rue Yves Toudic, 10th Arrondissement.
Dengo
The Brazilian brand Dengo continues to expand its Paris footprint. Known for its network of independent Brazilian growers and fair-trade practices, Dengo has opened shops in Montmartre, St.-Germain-des-Prés and the Upper Marais since 2023.
Tropical colors radiate from every corner of its shops, from the staff’s floral shirts to the jungle-print packaging for the brand’s milk and dark chocolate bars (€7.50 to €9.50). Dengo’s primary specialty is displayed in transparent cases: quebra-quebra (€9.50 per 100 grams). These jagged flat slabs ripple with dried ingredients from the Brazilian terroir, including tapioca, dried banana and cashews. A few are packed with delicacies little known beyond the South American nation, notably Amazon-grown cupuaçu fruit, a relative of cacao.
And when you’re ready to consume or serve Dengo’s creations, the shops also sell ceramic dishes, bowls and more — in vibrant colors, of course.
Dengo: 58, rue Bonaparte, 6th arrondissement; 19, rue Yvonne le Tac, 18th Arrondissement; 37, rue Debelleyme, 3rd Arrondissement.
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
The post In Paris, a New Wave of Chocolate Boutiques appeared first on New York Times.
