Valrhona's Philanthropy Partnership

As a certified B Corporation, Valrhona places its commitment to social responsibility at the center of its business model, continuously striving to create a more responsible culinary industry. In light of the challenges facing chefs, food business owners and hospitality workers due to the response to COVID-19, it is imperative that members of the food industry pull together to meet the needs of workers in crisis. One of the ways Valrhona will strengthen recovery efforts is by supporting Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation (RWCF) in 2021. The chocolate company is donating $1 for every 1 kg block of AMATIKA 46% and $3 for every 3kg of AMATIKA bag sold in North America with all proceeds going to the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Fund.

“In the future, businesses will only flourish if they place the same importance on their social and environmental impact as on their financial results.” Clementine Alzial, Valrhona CEO.

About Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation

RWCF is a nationwide advocacy and action nonprofit created by and for restaurant workers. By addressing quality-of-life issues that disproportionately affect restaurant workers, RWCF works to strengthen the workforce and increase opportunities for advancement in the industry to more people, focusing on the following areas: wage fairness and career ladders, gender equity and sexual violence, racial justice, and support for the immigrant community, and mental health and substance abuse.

For its COVID-19 Relief Fund, RWCF has partnered with Southern Smoke Foundation to raise and distribute funds directly to industry workers who have been impacted by COVID-19. As of December 27, 2020, the two organizations had raised more than $6.75 million for grants. RWCF’s Board of Directors has approved directing funds raised in the following ways:

• 50% for direct crisis relief to individual restaurant workers
• 25% for nonprofit organizations serving restaurant workers in crisis
• 25% for zero-interest loans for restaurants to get back up and running

Unless otherwise requested by the donor, kindly note that Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation is allocating 10% of donations over $10,000 for administrative expenses/general operating support, which is critical to supporting and administering the fund.

Read more about RWCF here.

To make a donation to RWCF’s COVID-19 Relief Fund, click here.

About AMATIKA 46%

Valrhona marks a milestone in chocolate-making with AMATIKA 46%, the first vegan Grand Cru chocolate available for both pastry chefs and home gourmets. AMATIKA is another unique chocolate in the Valrhona collection – sweet and creamy like a milk chocolate couverture, yet powerful like a single-origin chocolate. The result of passionate teamwork between sourcing teams, cocoa producers, innovation and sensory experts, and L’École Valrhona’s pastry chefs, AMATIKA 46% gives artisans the opportunity to see vegan pastry as a new source of inspiration, a way to stand out from the crowd and to serve a broader range of customers.

Read more about AMATIKA 46% here

About Valrhona Inc.

As a partner to pastry professionals since 1922 and a pioneer in the world of chocolate, Valrhona imagines the best of chocolate by working tirelessly to perfect its expertise, pushing the creative boundaries with a constantly growing aromatic palette, and inventing the next revolution in the world of chocolate.

Founded as a small chocolate manufacturer in the French village of Tain l’Hermitage, Valrhona oversees every aspect of its chocolate’s sustainable sourcing in more than 30 terroirs and 20 origins. These expertly cultivated and crafted chocolates are used in more than 70 countries. Valrhona has remained on the cutting edge of chocolate production and innovation by maintaining, in philosophy and practice, that pastry chefs make the best products for pastry chefs.

With its employees, chefs, and cacao producers, Valrhona works to create a just and sustainable cocoa sector and to inspire pastry that is delicious and cutting-edge. Building direct and long-term relationships with producers, searching for the next innovations in chocolate, and sharing expertise all bring Valrhona’s missions to life on a daily basis. Because what happens in the cacao plantations determines the sector's future, Valrhona is dedicated to developing the well-being of producers’ local communities and practicing sustainable cocoa cultivation.

Valrhona supports chefs by sharing the artisanal expertise of the company’s L’École Valrhona pastry chefs and by continuously pushing the limits of creativity, helping chefs to find their individual style and voice in the culinary industry. Valrhona's ranges of couvertures, chocolate bonbons, decorations, and tasting chocolates open new horizons for pastry professionals, who can count on consistent quality and flavors from a responsible partner who is committed to the environment.

In 2020, Valrhona earned the demanding B Corporation® certification, which distinguishes the most committed companies in the world who consider social and environmental impact equal to economic performance. This distinction is recognition for Valrhona’s Live Long sustainable development strategy, characterized by the aspiration to join forces with producers, employees, pastry professionals, and chocolate lovers to build a model that has a positive impact on the world.

Choosing Valrhona means being committed to chocolate that respects people and the planet. 100% of the company’s cocoa can be traced to the producer, which means knowing where the cocoa came from, who harvested it, and that it was produced in good conditions. For more information about Valrhona, follow us on social media at @ValrhonaUSA.

About L’École Valrhona

Founded in 1989, as a center for innovation and support for Valrhona’s professional clients, L'École Valrhona employs a team of 30 pastry professionals around the world who are committed to providing exceptional training and support to the next generation of chefs as well as pushing the boundaries of chocolate artisanship through the development of new techniques and products. Examples of their influence include popularizing bitter chocolate in the 1980s with the introduction of GUANAJA 70%, the bitterest chocolate, to creating the first blonde chocolate, DULCEY 32% in 2012. Valrhona opened L’École Valrhona in Brooklyn, DUMBO in 2015. For more information about L’École Valrhona, click here.