History of the House

Debauve & Gallais: A Commitment to Excellence.

It all starts with a story about good taste.

Founded in 1800 by Sulpice Debauve—the son of a doctor raised in the spirit of the Enlightenment and Louis XVI’s pharmacist at Versailles—the company combines exceptional craftsmanship, innovation, and a rigorous pursuit of balance between indulgent and health-conscious chocolates, between the useful and the pleasurable, as reflected in the founder’s motto, borrowed from Horace: Utile Dulci!

As the king’s personal pharmacist in 1779, Sulpice Debauve focused his research on cocoa. The scientist was aware of Marie Antoinette’s passion for chocolate, which reminded the Queen of France of her childhood in Vienna. Thus, to combat the sovereign’s headaches—as she complained about the bitterness of her “medicines”—he mixed the remedy with cocoa and added almond milk to sweeten the taste. The queen, delighted, named these small discs “pistoles.” Until then consumed as a beverage, Sulpice Debauve thus marked the invention of chocolate in bar form.

In 1800, he opened his first chocolate shop on Rue Saint-Dominique before moving, a few years later, in 1819, to Rue des Saints-Pères, into a magnificent colonnaded store designed by the architects Percier and Fontaine, which became the company’s historic headquarters.

The elegant hemicycle counter evoking an apothecary's dispensary, designed by the two fashionable decorators, and the façade, featuring Sulpice Debauve's motto "Utile Dulci", are listed as historic monuments.

Sulpice Debauve, chocolatier to First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and later to the Emperor, created the “croquamandes” in 1807, based on an idea conceived jointly by Chef Carême and Napoleon himself. For the first time, dried fruits were coated in chocolate.

At the same time, Debauve turned his attention to tea, a rare and precious commodity that was spreading throughout Europe at that period. This explorer of new flavours was ever passionate about innovation and chemistry. After having steeped cocoa in boiling water, it was only natural for him to experiment with infusing tea leaves to draw out their aromas.

The company imported its first, grands crustea vintages from China and Ceylon, by caravan and by ship, before storing them in elegant black tin boxes with gold lettering. Their coveted chromolithographs – the illustrated advertising cards that were all the rage in the 19th century – now featured fine Chulan jasmine tea, Padre Souchong with smoky notes, and other Pekoe teas composed of exquisite young buds with silvery tips, alongside their indulgent chocolates flavoured with almond milk, vanilla, or Persian salep.



Joined in 1823 by his nephew Jean-Baptiste Gallais, also a scientist, the company developed and distributed “health teas and chocolates.”

In "The Physiology of Taste", a seminal work on gastronomy published in 1826, the food journalist Brillat Savarin cites the virtues of health-promoting chocolates: "Guided by the insights of a sacred doctrine, Sulpice Debauve also sought to offer his many customers pleasant remedies for certain health issues". Thus, for those who are underweight, he offers analeptic chocolate with salep; for those with delicate nerves, antispasmodic chocolate with orange blossom; to those prone to irritability, milk chocolate with sweet almonds, to which he will no doubt add "the chocolate for the afflicted", amber in color and dosed secundum artem.

In 1820, Jean-Baptiste Gallais toured North and South America to map cocoa plantations. On his return, he carried out a rigorous classification of the farms, a work of reference published in 1825 named the "Monographie du cacao".

 In 1825, the chocolatiers Debauve & Gallais were awarded the title of purveyor to the kings of France, and created a chocolate decorated with a fleur-de-lis for the coronation of Charles X.

Among the company's many innovations, in 1838 they discovered the first milk dehydration porcess, lactoline, the basis of modern pastry-making.

A patent of this discovery can be seen on a private tour of the salon at the boutique on the Rue des Saints-Pères.

The numerous medals won by the founders' descendants at the World Fair (1867, 1878, 1889, and 1900) prove the company's constant drive to push back the limits of excellence and innovation without sacrificing the essential gourmet taste.

A perfect example: Debauve & Gallais won the gold medal for their Chocolat Eclair, instant hot chocolate, at the national exhibition in Antwerp in 1878.

The house has weathered every crisis, resisted every change of regime, and has been celebrated by the greatest writers of their time, from Balzac and Proust to Rimbaud and Baudelaire.

"Everything at Debauve & Gallais has a style, a character, a meaning.”

This description, borrowed from the writer Anatole France, illustrates and justifies the philosophy of an institution that has embodied France for more than 220 years, and enchanted the most demanding palates. 

Like a family secret passed down from generation to generation, Debauve & Gallais—remaining as true as ever to its motto, "Utile Dulci"—invites food lovers of all ages to and combine business with pleasure.