Mon dejeuner avec Geoffroy

Lunched with Geoffroy D'Anglejan-Chatillon and Fabienne Van houte in the rue de Sèvres a fortnight ago. We sat opposite what is probably the 12th Maison de Chocolat boutique that I have visited including the ones I designed with Geoffroy and his team in London years ago. Sadly whereas Paris and New York continue to thrive Geoffroy had to reluctantly pull the plug on the whole of the UK. Brexit had something to do with his decision, however the English love for sugary, milk chocolate over more expensive, healthier dark chocolate was the root cause. Many of the faithful European clients either brexited themselves or began eating milk chocolate to blend in with the natives (becoming chubbier in the process). 

 LMC is good value, reassuringly expensive, in the same way that a Hermes scarf or Tumi travel bag is good value. The purchase of a Tumi is one of the best shopping decisions of my entire life. I now travel lighter, faster, more intelligently. I discover some new “petite astuce” every trip. The people behind the bag have obviously sweated its design, execution and marketing. A clumsy absent-minded dreamer at the best of times, the Tumi backpack/roll along enables me to sprint to the departure gate giving me a military style workout as it typically weighs 14 kg when I really pack carefully.

 When you offer a colleague like Miroslaw Przybysz a small LMC coffret they remember it years later. The presentation, the smell, the velvety texture and last but not least the taste. It has the same intensity as the famous Proustian madeleine, a time machine that can transport you back decades in a way no controlled substance could ever hope to. It is a drug in the same way that coffee is a drug. Geoffroy is the man that produced the ￡50,000 chocolate Easter egg and the $1m chocolate snake. Now that Geoffroy has exited LMC I am very interested to see what epic feats of luxury he gets up to.