Following the success of the Louis Vuitton chocolate shops in Paris and Courchevel, a new shop opened on February 7 in the Louis Vuitton Marina Bay Sands flagship in Singapore. Le Chocolat Maxime Frédéric takes inspiration from master chocolatier Maxime Frédéric, who is widely renowned not only for his chocolates but also for his pastries.
Frédéric is the famed pastry chef of Cheval Blanc Paris. He earned acclaim for his passion for creating only the best sweets, both in flavor and aesthetic. Displaying mastery in selecting ingredients as well as meticulous skill and artistry, Frédéric’s signature style will be displayed in every item featured at Le Chocolat Maxime Frédéric.
“We began to see a lot of similarities between our work as pastry chefs and the skills of Louis Vuitton artisans,” says Frédéric about the importance that skill, passion, and craftsmanship play in the partnership. “Whether woodworkers or locksmiths for trunks, this is all about artisanal craftsmanship and is totally comparable to our craft as pastry chefs, bakers, and chocolatiers.”
Frédéric earned fame because of his uncompromising artisanship. He famously selects ingredients from his Normandy homeland whenever possible or even from his own family farm. The grandson of a dairy farmer, Frédéric is famously discerning in his selection of dairy. In his quest to source ingredients from as near to home as possible, Frédéric has made many friends with farmers in the area from which he also acquires ingredients.
The year that Frédéric first began his partnership with Louis Vuitton, beginning then with just an exhibition, Frédéric also won the prestigious Gault & Millau Guide’s Pastry Chef of the Year award.
Among the many chocolates for sale at the store, which includes mainstay sweets like chocolate-coated nuts, pralines, bars, and spreads, is the luxurious “Vivienne on Malle,” an interactive statue based on the Louis Vuitton Vivienne Music Box. The brand’s iconic flower mascot stands atop the trunk and rotates when a chocolate key is turned.
Another notable product is the Petula, designed in the image of Louis Vuitton’s lion mascot. It resembles a chocolate pinata filled with chocolate-coated hazelnuts. The store’s many chocolates feature Louis Vuitton monograms, with bars bearing the brand’s name in an elegant script or textured with logo patterns.
Designer sweets like these are incredibly popular, and prices at the store range from around $22 (converted from SGD) for a chocolate bar to $420 for the Vivienne on Malle. Some of the store’s most popular products, in particular the Vivienne on Malle and the Petula, have already required potential buyers to sign on to a waitlist.
Frédéric is only one of Louis Vuitton’s industry-breaking brand ambassadors. Later in the year, the luxury brand will open a restaurant in Bangkok featuring famed chef Gaggan Anand. This represents a growing trend among luxury brands. Other examples include a partnership between Gucci and Italian chef Massimo Bottura, together opening a worldwide chain of Italian restaurants. Another recent example is the partnership between the watchmakers at Jaeger-LeCoultre and pastry chef Nina Metayer, who created an exclusive pastry collection.
