[photo credit: Alliance Française de Pasadena]
The event, announced by Alliance Française de Pasadena, pairs chocolates from Chocolat Bonnat and François Pralus — both among a small number of French producers who make their own chocolate from the raw cacao bean, a process known as bean-to-bar. Ben Tseitlin, a Los Angeles-based chocolate maker and writer, will lead the tasting, which will also cover the history of chocolate and its place in French culinary tradition.
Chocolat Bonnat, based in the Alpine town of Voiron, has been making chocolate since 1884, according to the company’s website. The firm, now led by Stéphane Bonnat, the founder’s great-grandson, pioneered single-origin chocolate bars in the 1980s [CORRECTED from “fifth-generation chocolatier”] — producing bars made exclusively from cacao beans of one geographic source, an approach that has since become a standard in artisanal chocolate, according to the specialty chocolate retailer Cocoa Runners. Bonnat sources beans from plantations across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and practices 48-hour conching, a slow mixing process that brings out flavor while removing bitterness.
François Pralus, based in Roanne, traces its roots to 1948, when Auguste Pralus opened a patisserie there. Auguste earned the title Meilleur Ouvrier de France — Best Craftsman of France — in pastry and chocolate in 1955, according to the Pralus company website. His son François took over in 1988 and shifted the business toward chocolate-making from the bean. François Pralus owns a cacao plantation on the island of Nosy Be in Madagascar and imports beans from more than 15 countries, according to Cocoa Runners.
Both makers produce bars at 75 percent cacao — what François Pralus has called the ideal percentage for appreciating the qualities of each bean’s origin, according to the company’s website. Their chocolates are not widely available in the United States.
Tseitlin is the founder of Benchic Chocolate, a Los Angeles-based chocolate company he started in 2009, according to Crunchbase. He also publishes the Chocolate Nerd newsletter on Substack, where he reviews and analyzes artisan chocolate bars. In a January 2024 review of Chocolat Bonnat bars, Tseitlin described the company as one of his favorites and noted the distinctiveness of its use of cocoa butter in contrast to many American bean-to-bar makers.
The tasting is the latest in a series of cultural events organized by Alliance Française de Pasadena, which was founded on May 5, 1924, by Paul Elie Perigord, a professor of European History at Caltech. The organization celebrated its 100th anniversary in April 2024 and is one of the oldest Alliance Française chapters in the United States, according to its website. It hosted a French Chocolate and Champagne Tasting in December 2022.
Alliance Française de Pasadena is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting French language and Francophone cultures. It is part of the global Alliance Française network, which was founded in Paris in 1883 by figures including scientist Louis Pasteur and writer Jules Verne and now has more than 840 chapters in 135 countries, according to the organization.
The tasting takes place Tuesday, March 10, at 6 p.m. at Alliance Française de Pasadena, 232 N. Lake Ave., Suite 105. Tickets are $30 for members and $40 for nonmembers. For more information, call 833-386-3911 or visit afdepasadena.org.
Bonnat’s bars sell for $15 to $20 in the U.S., according to Tseitlin’s newsletter — but at 100 grams, they are roughly twice the size of a typical artisanal bar.
