The 29th edition of the Salon du Chocolat has just ended in Paris. More than 90,000 visitors flocked to the Porte de Versailles, between tastings, pastry demonstrations, conferences and parades of chocolate dresses. Faithful since the beginning to this meeting of chocoholics, the Pralus house presented a dress responding to the theme "Journey through time", while highlighting its profession of couverture, that is to say the manufacture of chocolate from the cocoa bean to the bar. Worn by Miss France 2019, Vaimalama Chaves, during the opening parade of the show, the cocoa nib dress caused a sensation each time it passed.
Vaimalama Chaves' dress
The result of the collaboration between Hugo Pralus and designer Stéphane Pagan, the 2024 chocolate dress pays homage to 70s cinema and particularly to Mireille Darc, whose dress worn in Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire was reproduced in chocolate-colored tulle. To keep its fluidity, there was no question of covering it with chocolate candies or weighing it down. Hugo Pralus thus chose to use cocoa nibs, which once refined with sugar makes it possible to obtain chocolate. Flat and then installed on a mannequin, the dress was covered in several stages with gué of different sizes depending on the pieces of the dress. This nib fabric, gilded in places, formed a cocoa skin that perfumed the backstage of the show. The model made her entrance on stage hidden under a long tulle cape which, once removed, revealed the work of the couturier and the famous neckline in the back!
An Award of Excellence for the Chuao tablet
The venerable Club des Croqueurs de chocolat awarded an Award of Excellence to François Pralus following the tasting of the Chuao 75% and Mélissa (45% milk) bars. The glowing commentary published in the 2024 expert guide . "Its fabulous aroma of cocoa, tangy fruits, and floral honey, rises to the nose like precious incense! Then the chocolate sets off to conquer the taste buds, coating the palate with sumptuous cocoa, balancing notes of roasted hazelnuts and tenderly tangy fruits, sweetness and bitterness. It prolongs its magic to infinity, at once warm as a spice, fresh as a summer breeze," note the Croqueurs who were keen to associate the Mélissa milk bar with this award.
Maison Pralus will be participating in the Salon du Chocolat in Lyon from February 14 to 16 and at the end of October for the 30th anniversary edition in Paris at the Portes de Versailles.
