Ladurée Paris Royale - Pastry Shop - Rated 4.1

Ladurée Paris Royale: The Beginning of the Business In 1862, Louis Ernest Ladurée, born in Paris on February 21, 1836, a miller by trade, opened a bakery at 16 rue Royale. At the time, the Madeleine was a business district where French luxury goods were sold. The Baker Becomes a Pastry Chef Following a fire caused by the 1871 Commune riots, the bakery was rebuilt and transformed into a pastry shop. Under the Second Empire, Jeanne Souchard, wife of Ernest Ladurée—son of Louis Ernest—and daughter of a Rouen hotelier, blended the art of Parisian café culture with that of pastry making. The Expansion of the Rue Royale Pastry Shop In 1930, a salon opened on the first floor of 16 rue Royale in Paris. After the Liberation of Paris in 1944, Pierre Desfontaines, a cousin of Ernest Ladurée, took over the struggling business, which was in decline due to a lack of raw materials. The Creation of the "Macaron" He revitalized the company and invented the Parisian macaron in 1960 with the help of his pastry chef, Marcel Thébert. They developed the idea of incorporating cocoa into the Italian meringue shell, adding a chocolate ganache between the two shells, and then creating flavors like coffee and raspberry. The New Owner: The Holder Group In 1993, David Holder and his father Francis, founder of the Holder Group, acquired and expanded the Ladurée company. Three years later, the company achieved a turnover of 24 million francs and employed 140 people. Pierre Hermé became Ladurée’s head pastry chef. In 1997, two boutiques opened in Paris: one on the Champs-Élysées, decorated by Jacques Garcia, and the other on rue Bonaparte, decorated by Roxane Rodriguez. In 2006, a boutique opened at Harrods in London, also decorated by Roxane Rodriguez. Pierre Hermé left the group the following year and was replaced by Philippe Andrieu. From the 2000s onward, the brand invested in diversifying its products. In March 2021, Ladurée sold 100% of its shares to the LOV Group, owned by Stéphane Courbit. In April 2021, Julien Alvarez, former chef of Le Bristol Paris, became Ladurée’s international executive chef. At the end of 2021, Mélanie Carron joined the adventure as the company’s new CEO, appointed General Manager of the Maison Ladurée. Ladurée and Its Production Sites Ladurée operates several production sites, including one in France and its main facility in Switzerland. In 2010, the company acquired a 2.05-hectare plot in Enney, in the Bas-Intyamon municipality of the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland, and invested 20 million Swiss francs to open the "Swiss Macaron Factory" at the end of 2011—a production and research site. The laboratory produces macarons sold outside Europe, and since 2020, those for the six Parisian boutiques. Pastries for the Paris region boutiques, as well as viennoiseries, ice creams, and confectionery, are made in the 2,000 m² laboratory located in Morangis, in Essonne. Fresh pastries are prepared daily in local laboratories.