Godiva Chocolatier is a Belgian-based international chocolate maker which is owned by Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding.
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; there are also two Écoles Valrhona in France and one in Japan.
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 confectioneries from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. They are pastry chefs or confectioners who specialize in chocolate and making chocolate candies. Chocolatiers work artisanally with ready-made chocolate mass and are therefore distinct from industrial chocolate makers.
Callebaut is a Belgian coverture chocolate manufacturer owned by the Barry Callebaut group and based in Belgium. It was founded in 1911 by Octaaf Callebaut in Belgium. Coverture chocolate contains high amounts of cocoa butter and is often used by gourmet and culinary professionals. Many professionals who use Callebaut coverture chocolate use it for its workability and consistent taste.
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa pods mixed with fat and powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified primarily according to the proportion of cocoa and fat content used in a particular formulation.
Pierre Hermé is a French pastry chef and chocolatier. He began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre. Called "the Picasso of Pastry" by Vogue, Hermé was awarded the title of World's Best Pastry Chef in 2016 by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. He was also ranked the fourth most influential French person in the world by Vanity Fair. In 1998, Hermé created his own brand with Charles Znaty. He has written or co-written over 40 books.
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.
Amano Artisan Chocolate is an American bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer based in Orem, Utah.
Jacques Torres is a French pastry chef and chocolatier based in New York. 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!.
Janice Wong is a Singaporean artist, chocolatier, chef, and entrepreneur. In addition to restaurants, dessert bars, and retail ventures, she is known for her edible art installations. She has won multiple awards, including being named "Asia’s Best Pastry Chef" two years in a row by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants award sponsored by S.Pellegrino. Her single-origin, bean-to-bar chocolate brand, Janice Wong Pure Imagination, has retail outlets and production facilities in Singapore.
Mast 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, is "widely credited for introducing artisanal chocolate to mainstream American culture" and has been instrumental in popularizing the bean-to-bar movement in America,. However, Mast Brothers has also faced criticism and allegations that did not make their chocolate in the "bean-to-bar" style they claimed.
Zotter Schokolade is an Austrian chocolate manufacturer specializing in organic and fairly traded bean-to-bar chocolate. The company was founded in 1999 by Josef Zotter and is based in Riegersburg, Styria. Zotter is mostly active in German-speaking Europe, with 90 percent of distribution outlets being located in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. As one of Austria's most well-known trademarks, Zotter is considered a national high equity brand.
Gaston Lenôtre was a French pastry chef. He is known as a possible creator of the opera cake, the founder of Lenôtre a culinary empire, whose brand includes restaurants, catering services, retail concerns and cooking schools, as well as one of the three founders with Paul Bocuse and Roger Verge of Les Chefs de France at Epcot in Orlando, Florida, US.
The first season of Top Chef: Just Desserts was broadcast on Bravo. It featured 12 pastry chefs fighting to win the title of Top Chef.
