History of the House

Debauve & Gallais, a taste for excellence.

Founded in 1800 by Sulpice Debauve, King Louis XVI's pharmacist, house combines excellent savoir-faire, innovation and a rigorous search for balance between gourmet and healthy chocolates. The useful with the pleasurable, as indicated by the founder's motto that comes from the philosopher Horace : Utile Duci ! 

Pharmacist to the King in 1779, Sulpice Debauve, a doctor's son, focused his research on cocoa. The scientist was aware of Marie-Antoinette's infatuation with chocolate, which reminded the Queen of France of her Viennese childhood. So, to help ease the sovereign's headaches who complained that her "medicines", he mixed the remedy with cocoa, adding almond milk to soften the taste. Enchanted, the queen, named these medallions "Pistoles". Previously consumed as a beverage, Sulpice Debauve invented the first solid chocolate you could bite into.

In 1800, the pharmacist set up his own chocolate house and became chocolatier to the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. To celebrate the Friedland victory, Sulpice Debauve developed the recipe for Croquamandes, the first chocolate-coated dried fruit, based on an idea shared by the celebrate Chef Carême and the emperor himself.

In 1819, he moved to 30 Rue des Saints-Pères, on the Left Bank of Paris. The prestigious architects Percier and Fontaine, who designed the Château de la Malmaison, the arc of the Louvre carrousel and the arcaded buildings on rue de Rivoli, were commissioned to design this temple to gourmet delights.

The elegant hemicycle counter, reminiscent of an apothecary's dispensary, designed by the two fashionable decorators, the elegant hemicycle counter is reminiscent of an apotecary's dispensary and the facade features Sulpice Debauve's motto "Utile Dulci". Both are listed as historic monuments.

In 1823,  his nephew Jean-Baptiste Gallais, also a pharmacist, joined him, and the company developed and distributed “health chocolates.”In La physiologie du goût, the founding text of gastronomy published in 1826, the gastronome journalist Brillat Savarin cites the virtues of health chocolates: "Following the enlightenment of a holy doctrine, Sulpice Debauve also sought to offer his many customers pleasant medicines against certain illnesses. Thus, to underweight people, he proposes analeptic chocolate with Salep; to those with delicate nerves, antispasmodic chocolate with orange blossom; to the irritation-prone, chocolate with sweet almond milk, to which he will no doubt add ‘chocolate for the distressed,’ amber 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, chocolatiers Debauve & Gallais were awarded the title of chocolatier to the kings of France. For the coronation of Charles X, they created a chocolate in the shape of a fleur-de-lys.

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 dsicovery 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 handed down from generation to generation, Debauve & Gallais, invites gourmets young and old, to experience its singular mix of useful and pleasure, truer than ever to its motto, Utile Dulci.