Paris’ Oldest Chocolate Shop, À La Mère de Famille, is Still Sweet after 262 Years
À La Mère de Famille storefront photo credit Anna Mindess
It is hard to believe that the shop with an imposing green and gold façade on rue du Faubourg Montmartre has been selling fine chocolates since 1761. À La Mère de Famille started as a family business and has been run for over 250 years by a succession of families. It is now in the very capable hands of four siblings, the Dolfis. Recently we spoke to the youngest sibling, Jonathan Dolfi to learn more about the business.
Jonathan Dolfi photo credit Anna Mindess
What is it like running À La Mère de Famille as a family business?
We are a special family because we are four brothers and sisters. Our dad was not in chocolate but in the sweets business for the past 50 years. He had inherited that business from his father in 1972. In, 2000, my older brother and sister [Steve and Sophie] started working with dad. Then the owner of À La Mère de Famille called him, said he was getting old and asked if he would be interested in taking it over. They all thought it was a magnificent offer and they decided to do it. Then, very naturally, our youngest sister [Jane] and me, I’m the youngest, joined and the four of us are now running the company together, which is special. We are very close because we work together, but we all have different areas of responsibility.
You and your siblings own the oldest chocolate store in Paris. What does that mean to you personally?
It means that we don’t really own it, we are just the keepers for the next generation. It’s been here since 1761 and it will be here for the next 200 years. We hope our kids will take over from us, but we don’t know for sure. We have a responsibility to the customers, because often there are 80-year-old customers who come here to buy chocolates for their grandchildren and they remember when they were young, and their grandparents bought them chocolates here.
It seems like a balancing act of the past, the present and the future.
Yes! It’s our responsibility to keep the high standards, but we also shouldn’t fall asleep. We have to stay sharp, see the trends and still innovate. It’s a balance between tradition and innovation. You can be tempted to make more money by changing the recipes, buying cheaper beans, finding a new technique to make it cheaper. But we never do that, we are very attached to having the best products; our kids are eating them so we focus on making traditional items.
Does that lead to tension?
Counter photo credit Anna Mindess
We are each very different. We have different sensitivities and approaches to life. This balances us out, for example, being more careful vs more impulsive. If, for example, we were all impulsive it would be a nightmare and we would be fighting all the time. Because we are very different, it works. Sometimes, when one of us says ‘I’m fed up and I want to leave’ it never lasts for more than five minutes. My oldest sister, who is the wisest, says no one can leave, if one of us leaves, it breaks the whole balance. My brother and younger sister work on the packaging and the atmosphere in the shop because they are more artistic. I’m more into finance, accounting, and production because we have several workshops where things are produced, and I keep an eye on them.
What are some of the oldest products you carry?
Palet d’or is a chocolate ganache with vanilla, topped with a tiny bit of goldleaf It was invented in 1898 in a small town, Moulins. Again, when the owner wanted to retire, he asked if we wanted to take it over. Not every store has this.
Also, Négus de Nevers, a chocolate flavored soft caramel enclosed in a hard caramel. It was developed in 1902 in a small shop then the owner wanted to retire and now we produce for all our stores.
And what’s your newest creation?
Specialty Box photo credit Anna Mindess
It’s called a Dolfentine, like a Florentine, which is sold in every chocolate shop, but we realized that sometimes the cookie wafer becomes sticky, so these wafers of flaked almonds, roasted, caramelized with honey are completely coated in dark or milk chocolate.
Is it true that you have decreased the sugar in your chocolates?
Yes, that’s right. For example, the components of a chocolate praline are almonds, hazelnuts, and sugar. Traditionally, the balance was 50% nuts and 50% sugar. But now it’s 70% nuts, 30% sugar.
Where do you get your chocolate beans?
From Peru, Venezuela, Madagascar, Haiti, and Ecuador. We don’t buy from the Ivory Coast or Ghana because they often don’t give farmers a fair salary and we don’t want to use child labor. Every year, we go to a different country to meet with the farmers and see how they produce the cocoa beans, and we can develop a good partnership with different plantations. So, when we go and visit smaller countries like Madagascar, the farmers get better salaries, and we have direct access to the beans and get better quality.
But like wine, our chocolate is a blend. For our coating chocolate, a blend of Madagascar, Haiti and Ecuador. We usually go visit one place a year, but not during COVID, of course.
What makes your stores unique?
Other stores can’t manage the range of products that we have. If you go to other stores during Easter, they will have chocolate in the shape of bells, eggs, bunnies, fish, and that’s it. We have cats, dogs, lobsters, seashells, beavers. We designed a new animal, a bear. People are happy, during Easter to buy animal shapes to give away, perhaps a bunny to match the kid’s energetic personality or a bear that reminds them of dad.
How many different chocolates do you make?
We make about 60-70 varieties.Chocolate bonbons, pralines, and other things. Fruits, calissons, caramels, we make our own marzipan, our own Nutella without palm oil. Whenever we do something, we want to make it the very best, we’re making ice cream now