Valrhona

Valrhona

Type	Subsidiary of Bongrain
Industry	Confectionery production
Founded	1922
Headquarters	Tain-l'Hermitage, France
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Chocolates
Number of employees	650 (2013)
Website	www.valrhona.com

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 Bongrain. 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.

Valrhona's products are generally used in high-end restaurants.

Valrhona's products are provided as pillow chocolates on cruise ships, as well as being used in cruise ship cuisine.

Valrhona relies on long-term collaborative relationships with planters and chefs.

Valrhona sponsors the Ecole du Grand Chocolat cooking school.

Valrhona focuses mainly on high-grade luxury chocolate marketed for commercial use by chefs as well as for private consumption. The product line includes chocolate confectionery, plain and flavored chocolate bars and bulk chocolate in bars or pellets. Valrhona produces vintage chocolate made from beans of a single year's harvest from a specific plantation, primarily the Grand Crus which is grown in South America, Oceania and the Caribbean.