Why it belongs in ORBIS
Alain Ducasse's bean-to-bar chocolate workshop, opened February 2013 in a former garage off Rue de la Roquette in Bastille. One of few Paris chocolatiers making 100% of its own chocolate in-house, on vintage European machinery, rather than buying in couverture.
Alain Ducasse opened La Manufacture de Chocolat in February 2013, at the end of a cobbled courtyard on Rue de la Roquette in Paris's Bastille neighborhood, converting a former garage into a working chocolate factory. Ducasse's interest in chocolate dates to the 1970s, when he worked for chocolatier Maurice Bernachon in Lyon during his culinary apprenticeship. The Bastille workshop was described at its opening as the first bean-to-bar chocolate factory of its kind in Paris, combining vintage machinery sourced from across Europe with a modern production space. The brand has since expanded to multiple Paris addresses.