Five new chocolate boutiques in Paris

French culinary legends and award-winning upstarts are expanding the city's offerings. Here are five

- SETH SHERWOOD

Inside Cedric et la Chocolaterie, the new Paris chocolate shop from the celebrity pastry chef Cedric Grolet - a tattooed 40-year-old with boutiques from St Tropez to Singapore - a wall of molten chocolate sluices downward, dazzling the fans who line up daily to enter the hallowed space.

Paris has experienced a veritable chocolate wave in recent years. Numerous new shops, created by French culinary legends and award-winning young upstarts alike, have been expanding the city’s offerings and elevating Paris into a strong contender for the title of world’s greatest chocolate metropolis, up there with Brussels and Zurich.

In addition to Grolet’s boutique, 34-year-old Elwood Bouazza, the former head of chocolate-making for Pierre Hermé — perhaps France's most famous living pastry chef, courtesy of his masterful macarons — opened Fleurs de Chocolats in the 16th Arrondissement. And Nina Métayer, who was named the World's Best Pastry Chef last year at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards, rolled out her first chocolate outlet in the luxurious Samaritaine department store. The approach to chocolate has been evolving as well, with more chefs championing ethical sourcing, sustainable agriculture and raw materials from small growers around the world. "A new generation of fine chocolate makers and pastry chefs in Paris no longer sees chocolate as a commodity," said Frank Homann, founder of Xoco, a company in Paris that supplies chocolate from independent cacao farmers in Central America to European chefs, shops, restaurants. "They're treating it as a living ingredient with cultural and sensory depth." Here are the best of the new shops.

Cedric et la Chocolaterie