Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Central Africa and West Africa, and most parts of China, there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known simply as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, where its main factory and museum are located.
Godiva Chocolatier is a Belgian chocolate maker which is jointly owned by Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding and South Korean equity company MBK Partners.
Scharffen Berger is an American chocolate manufacturing company, which was a subsidiary of The Hershey Company after it had been acquired in 2005. Scharffen Berger was established as an independent Berkeley, California-based chocolate maker in 1996 by sparkling wine maker John Scharffenberger and physician Robert Steinberg.
Valrhona is a French premium chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon. It is now a subsidiary of Savencia Fromage & Dairy. The company was founded in 1922 by a French pastry chef, Albéric Guironnet, from the Rhône valley and has five subsidiaries and 60 local distributors across the globe. It is one of the leading producers of gastronomic chocolate in the world. The company also maintains the École du Grand Chocolat, a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries. In 2015 Valrhona opened the École Valrhona Brooklyn, a pastry school in Brooklyn.
Michel Cluizel is a bean-to-bar chocolate making company that was founded in the French town of Damville in Normandy in 1948 by Marc Cluizel.
A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients.
Callebaut is a Belgian chocolate brand, owned by the Barry Callebaut group.
Chocolate is a range of foods derived from cocoa (cacao), mixed with fat and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified according to the proportion of cocoa used in a particular formulation.
David Carmichael is an American chef, specializing in pastry. Born and raised in New York, he has run several pastry kitchens in many of Manhattan's finest restaurants. He currently works at Gilt restaurant, situated in the New York Palace Hotel. He is known for his salted milk chocolate ice cream and warm brownies.
Norman Love is an American pastry chef located in Fort Myers, Florida.
William Curley is a Scottish patissier and chocolatier. Curley is the owner of the London chocolate company William Curley Ltd., and has won the Academy of Chocolate's 'Britain's Best Chocolatier' Award four times. In 2012 William became a member of the prestigious pastry association Relais Desserts.
Gale Gand is a Chicago-based pastry chef, cookbook author, television personality, and winner of the 2001 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Gand was the host of the Food Network show Sweet Dreams. She was the Chef-in-Residence at Elawa Farm, in Lake Forest, Illinois. Gand is a partner and was the founding Executive Pastry Chef at Tru, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant affiliated with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. Gand and her partners at Tru won the 2007 James Beard Foundation Award for Service. She has blogged for the Huffington Post, was a contestant on Iron Chef America in the 2006–2007 season, and was a judge on Bravo's Top Chef in 2008 for the episode Wedding Wars. Gand was also featured on the Great Chefs television program.
Jacques Torres is a French pastry chef and chocolatier. Torres is a member of the International Culinary Center community, as Dean of Pastry Arts as well as holding pastry demonstrations. He appears on the show Nailed It!.
Florian Bellanger[bɛlɑ̃ˈʒe] is a French pastry chef, formerly the executive pastry chef at the famous Parisian pastry and candy shop, Fauchon. He is a permanent judge on the Food Network's competition series Cupcake Wars, appearing in over nine seasons and 135 episodes to date.
The second season of Top Chef Just Desserts was broadcast on Bravo. It featured 14 pastry chefs fighting to win the title of Top Chef.
Janice Wong is a Singaporean pastry chef who owns 2am:dessert bar in Holland Village, 2am:lab, in November 2014 she launched her eponymous sweet concept brand, Janice Wong. The Janice Wong brand has two retail outlets and two restaurants in Singapore; a dessert bar and lab in Tokyo, Japan; and a retail and dining experience at the MGM Cotai in Macau.
Mast Brothers is an American artisanal chocolate company headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. The company was founded in 2007 by brothers Rick and Michael Mast, from Primghar, Iowa. Mast Brothers, according to Vanity Fair, are "widely credited for introducing artisanal chocolate to mainstream American culture" and to have been instrumental in popularizing the bean-to-bar movement in America, but has faced criticism for their lack of involvement in the artisanal chocolate business community, as well as allegations they used third-party chocolate in their early products.
