In a transfer that can additional elevate Dubai’s vibrant culinary panorama, Valrhona, a number one international title in candy gastronomy, is about to open a brand new, state-of-the-art college within the Emirate in September.
Combining French savoir-faire with native tradition
Valrhona’s determination to open a college in Dubai represents a response to rising demand for high-quality skilled coaching within the area.
Guillaume Lafaix, IMEA Enterprise Unit supervisor at Valrhona Choice, famous that having had a presence within the Gulf nations since 2007 and witnessing the area’s culinary enlargement since then, the time felt proper to deliver the model’s experience, constructed up over 100 years, to the UAE. “The sturdy development in recent times, accelerated by a focus of gifted cooks within the space, led Valrhona naturally to pursue a fifth L’École Valrhona and make it obtainable to worldwide cooks at Metropolis Stroll in Dubai,” he stated.
Like its different famend instructional amenities worldwide, L’École Valrhona Dubai will got down to unite a multicultural neighborhood of cooks by selling the event of its creations, whereas instilling in them the model’s key values, which embrace excellence, dedication and accountability.
Professionals will probably be immersed in a universe of culinary innovation, combining French savoir-faire and native cultures, in line with Valrhona’s longstanding traditions.
A really perfect vacation spot
Located on the crossroads of Asia, the Center East and Europe, Dubai shines as a worldwide business, culinary and cultural hub, proudly displaying numerous influences and artistry at each flip.
Its cosmopolitan outlook and broad vary of impressed gastronomic choices are among the many many causes that Valrhona identified the Emirate as a really perfect location to open its new college and proceed
its mission to domesticate skills, develop technical expertise and unleash pastry potential.
Surrounded by resorts and eating places within the coronary heart of a metropolis the place there may be nice enthusiasm for high-end delicacies, the brand new L’École Valrhona is poised to be each a middle of excellence and a premier regional vacation spot for candy gastronomy professionals. This newest college will comply with within the footsteps of L’Ecole Valrhona Tain L’Hermitage, Paris, Brooklyn and Tokyo.
A formidable group
Led by Brice Konan-Ferrand, govt pastry chef of L’École Valrhona Dubai, the college will encourage professionals to undertake new culinary discoveries, whereas buying and revisiting new technical expertise. Brice Konan-Ferrand, who brings with him a few years of expertise specializing in pastry and chocolate acquired at L’Ecole Valrhona and prestigious international institutions, stated: “Dubai has turn into the epicenter of high international gastronomy and we’re delighted to deliver our experience in chocolate and pastry to our dynamic neighborhood.”
After working as a kitchen chef in Europe and Africa for various years, Brice Konan-Ferrand enrolled in Olivier Bajard (Finest French Craftsmen, particular discernment: Meilleur Ouvrier de France [MOF]) Faculty to specialise in pastry. He then labored for Arnaud Lahrer (MOF) in Paris for seven years, earlier than shifting to Lyon with Sebastien Bouillet as a chocolate maker accountable for Manufacturing and Connoisseur lessons.
To check his willingness to tackle new challenges, he participated within the tv competitors present ‘Qui sera le prochain grand Pâtissier?’ (Who would be the subsequent nice Pastry Chef?) France (2) and different competitions, together with the European Sugar Artwork Problem in Belfort. Konan-Ferrand joined L’École Valrhona in 2015, bolstered by the 12 years of expertise he had gained and enriched by the individuals with whom he had shared his ardour. After seven fantastic years in Asia-Pacific (APAC) at L’École Valrhona Tokyo, in November 2022, he took over as pastry chef of L’École Valrhona for the IMEA area in Dubai. He’s now the brand new govt pastry chef of L’École Valrhona Dubai.
Brice Konan-Ferrand will probably be joined at L’École Valrhona Dubai by Fatima Ok. Rahman as assistant pastry chef, who has labored with many MOF cooks and educated beneath quite a few award-winning consultants. She brings technical expertise, artistic flair and expertise gained overseas to her position, alongside a longstanding, unwavering love for her craft. “I labored with Valrhona couvertures in the beginning of my profession and stay as captivated with chocolate right this moment as ever, empowered and impressed by Valrhona’s revolutionary benchmark recipes,” she stated.
Numerous and inventive programs
L’École Valrhona Dubai’s choices will embrace:
- Coaching – two-to-three-day workshops, led by L’École Valrhona’s coaching cooks, visitor pastry cooks and distinctive artisans, overlaying varied themes similar to chocolate-making, vegan pastry, different desserts, artistic viennoiseries, chocolate candies and vacation desserts.
- Technical enterprise consulting – with L’École Valrhona pastry chef instructors visiting a shopper’s laboratory and offering a custom-made service.
- Conferences – technological insights into significant developments in pastry and chocolate practices.
- Workshops – held within the laboratory and centered on key trade subjects, with a program that strikes from principle to follow, throughout which members acquire the instruments and strategies to breed culinary creations.
- Demonstrations – displays of the Valrhona vary of merchandise, supplied via sensible functions earlier than a plenary meeting.
The programs will even reflect Valrhona’s forward-looking focus and revolutionary outlook, with topical topics similar to different desserts and plant-based pastry explored. Excessive on this checklist will probably be a course titled ‘Reasoned Indulgence,’ led by Frédéric Bau, pastry explorer at Maison Valrhona. The spectacular line-up of of cooks who will probably be main the programs at L’École Valrhona Dubai contains: Fabrice David, govt chef of L’École Valrhona Tokyo; David Briand, MOF and govt chef of L’École Valrhona Tain L’Hermitage; Philippe Givre, govt chef and coordinator of know-how at L’École Tain L’Hermitage; Gianluca Fusto, co-founder of Fusto Milano; François Daubinet; or Louisa Lim, govt pastry chef at three-Michelin-starred Odette in Singapore, to call just some.
Inexperienced initiatives a precedence
Innovation is undoubtedly on the coronary heart of every little thing that Valrhona does, as is sustainability. Unsurprisingly, due to this fact, L’École Valrhona Dubai is provided with state-of-the-art, cutting-edge machines that are extremely vitality environment friendly, according to the corporate’s dedication to sustainable practices. The gear has been designed to attenuate electrical energy utilization and improve water administration by dealing with greywater and steam successfully. Work on waste administration and the general valorization of elements to cut back meals waste have additionally been focal factors for L’École Valrhona
Dubai, underscoring the model’s well-established dedication to excellence and environmental stewardship in culinary training. In line with Valrhona’s inexperienced values, plastic use has been excluded from the laboratories and changed with eco-responsible supplies.
Making use of technical expertise Philippe Rigollot, the award-winning MOF mentor for the initiative and whose illustrious profession in pastry and chocolate-making is nicely documented, stated that for him, L’École Valrhona Dubai represented every little thing {that a} college of culinary creativity and experience ought to embody. “It’s about transmitting and sharing data, studying from everybody, and dealing on the evolution of pastry with new strategies and merchandise,” he stated. “It’s additionally about committing to the brand new challenges of our occupation, similar to eco-responsibility, traceability and the origin of merchandise. It’s an honor for me to be the mentor of L’École Valrhona Dubai, which is able to shine a lightweight on French pastry and chocolate-making on this lovely area of the world. Lengthy reside pastry! Lengthy reside chocolate-making! Lengthy reside knowledge-sharing!”
The opening of L’École Valrhona Dubai will mark the following chapter in successful story that dates again to 1922, when pastry chef Albéric Guironnet organized a workshop within the Rhone Valley, France. He later developed a chocolate manufacturing enterprise devoted
to serving fellow chocolatiers, which he named Valrhona. The premium chocolate producer’s amenities in Tain L’Hermitage stay to at the present time, with the extremely regarded and revered practices handed down via the generations. Concurrently ahead considering, Valrhona has additionally performed an energetic position in shifting the established order towards a fairer, extra sustainable cocoa trade, according to its mission assertion, which is: ‘Collectively, good turns into higher,’ and their B Corp certification, gained in January 2020.