“Recently, I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to visit the home of Valrhona Chocolate in France and train alongside chef Matthieu Atzenhoffer. In 2019, Chef Matthieu was awarded the prestigious title of ‘Meilleur Ouvrier de France Boulanger 2019’. When someone holds an award as one of the best craftsmen of France, you know you are going to be working at another level, alongside an internationally renowned brand. 

Valrhona is based in a town called Tain-l’Hermitage, around an hour’s drive south of Lyon. We flew on an early morning flight from Manchester, hired a car and took advantage of our day to visit Lyon prior to our drive down the Rhône Valley. Lyon is an incredible city full of rivers, culture, and amazing food. There is a reason it is called the Gastronomic capital of France! Our first port of call was the food market of St. Antoine situated on the Rhône. It stretches down the banks and is bustling with local producers selling everything you could possibly imagine, including fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, cheese, bread, wine and pastries. 

We also discovered a wonderful shop called Les Éclaireurs, a small company who specialise in nothing but the finest éclairs. We tried their special savoury éclairs too including smoked salmon and cream cheese! Although the French capital of gastronomy may be known for its bouchons serving rich and meaty saucissons and quenelles, Lyon also has its fair share of sweet specialities too! We joined a queue of people waiting to be served outside a chocolatier called Pralus. We soon knew why as we joined the crowd to sample the famous pink pralines. These delicious sugar-coated, caramelised almonds are a local speciality, and this particular shop is famous for their brioche aux pralines, made famous by baker Auguste Pralus in 1955, coining it as the ‘Praluline’. It was simply divine! 

After a busy day in Lyon, we headed out of the city and drove south down the Rhône Valley to the stunning town of Tain-l’Hermitage on the Rhône River. We had booked into an apartment overlooking the square and a stone’s throw from everything. Arriving in the town, it is very obvious that Valrhona is an important part of the culture and the local life here. Chefs feature Valrhona chocolate on almost every dessert menu and patisseries have used it for generations. Valrhona has a deeply embedded, rich history here because this is where it all began just over 100 years ago, and still operates in the same building where Albéric Guironnet opened the original ‘Chocolaterie du Vivarais’ in 1922. There is now a visitor experience, ‘La Cité du Chocolat’, with a visitor shop, two factories and a state-of-the-art school for professionals operated by 30 of the world’s greatest patisseries and chocolatiers.