About Us

Our Philosophy / Evolution

“There’s chocolate and then, there’s the real chocolate. One that celebrates the truest flavours of cacao and envelopes your senses like the passionate kiss of an amour.”
- Chef Sanjana Patel

Since its inception in 2014, La Folie has championed the magnificence of real chocolate in its art of modern European pastry and chocolate-making. Over the years, Chef Sanjana and her team of artisans have combined delectable Grand Cru chocolate from across the globe with French savoir-faire.
The result: A smorgasbord of signature and redefined classical creations exploding with flavours, tantalising textures and rare ingredients that a chocoholic can only dream of.

The Real Chocolate Makers

In its pursuit to showcase the most authentic expression of real chocolate, La Folie has embarked on a journey to create chocolate from its origin – the bean. This heralds the bestselling chocolatier’s evolution into an expert bean-to-bar chocolate maker.
La Folie’s bean-to-bar process is tailor-made to coax flavours from the finest, single-origin cacao ethically sourced from around the world. Cradled with care, the organic beans are handcrafted into small batch chocolate at La Folie’s micro-factory in Mumbai. 
Paired with natural ingredients sourced locally, each exceptionally delicious creation pays homage to the cacao’s origin and its unique character.

Masters of Modernist Edible Art

Chef Sanjana and her team’s glorious creations are showcased at La Folie’s boutiques spread across Mumbai. Located in Bandra, La Folie Lab’s dual persona of an all-day café and a dessert bar is designed to wow gourmands with exquisite sensorial experiences on a plate.
La Folie Du Chocolat in Kala Ghoda exemplifies luxurious edible art with a variety of chocolate bonbons in jewel hues and chocolate bars that redefine architectural prowess.
La Folie Factory Café in Mahalaxmi welcomes guests to indulge in culinary conversations over a light lunch. The adjacent state-of-the-art culinary studio – The Classroom – is a playground for novices and experts to explore flavours and replenish their cooking skills. 
La Folie has also introduced Factory Tours at their Small Batch Chocolate Factory to provide an in-depth understanding of the bean-to-bar chocolate making process.

Our Team

Parthesh Patel
Co-Founder and Director

Parthesh Patel, Co-Founder and Director, spearheads the development of La Folie’s vision as the maison of inimitable artistry in modern pastry and chocolate-making.
With over a decade of cross-industry expertise in strategy planning, customer service and guiding execution in the field of hospitality, Parthesh is responsible for business development and sales at La Folie.
With his creative approach, he has established La Folie as a premier haute spot to savour sophisticated, sensorial creations in Mumbai. Now, he plans to strengthen the brand’s footprint in other cities via online retail, by guiding the development of exceptional products with a longer shelf life.
Parthesh’s universal approach to the brand is shaped by his previous stints at the reputed Larsen & Toubro in Mumbai and Essar Global Services in London. Along with his vast experience, he relies on his solid foundations – Management degree from London’s Imperial College and Honours in Mechanical Engineering from University of Liverpool – to take La Folie to great heights of success and excellence.

Sanjana Patel
Creative Director and Executive Chef

Sanjana Patel shares a special relationship with chocolate – one of reverence, love and discovery. As the Creative Director and Executive Chef at La Folie, she showcases her passion for chocolate in a plethora of original, haute couture-style renditions of French delicacies. With knowledge and expertise refined for over two decades, today Sanjana is a revolutionary force in the art of modern pastry and chocolate-making.
In her latest pursuit to discover an authentic expression of real chocolate, Sanjana has transformed from a chocolatier to a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. Her quest for the finest-origin beans has led her to cacao farms across four continents. A staunch follower of ethical trade, Sanjana’s creations brim with exuberant, natural flavours and her intense desire to share the magnificence of real chocolate.
At heart, she is a passionate artist. The plate is her canvas. She paints it with flavour-strokes honed at the reputed École Grégoire Ferrandi in Paris and then, as an apprentice with Pierre Hermé. Her résumé includes stints with global heavyweights such as Patrick Roger, Olivier Bajard, and Chefs Christophe Michalak and Alain Ducasse (at Hotel Plaza Athénée in the Dorchester Collection). With her immense talent, Sanjana has attained national and global accolades, including the titles of ‘India’s Pastry Queen’ (2015) and the ‘4th Best Pastry Chef for 2016’ at the World Pastry Queen Competition. But rather than resting on her laurels, you’ll always find Sanjana engrossed in pushing the envelope of creativity and planning her next avant-garde creation.

Our Values

  • ALL NATURAL

    We strive to make 'Real Chocolate' using all natural ingredients and organic cacao to retain the uniqueness and purity of taste that each single origin cacao provides. For our inclusion bars we pair and combine other natural ingredients such as organic cane sugar, black jaggery, natural freeze dried fruits, nuts and other herbs and spices sourced locally.

  • ETHICAL TRADE

    We believe our process should benefit the niche community of growers, producers and makers, whose livelihoods depend on cacao and chocolate. We source our cacao directly from select co-operatives that use transparent and ethical trade practices, as well as farms that follow sustainable and quality conscious growing and harvesting practices.

  • FINEST ORIGIN

    We believe in providing a variety of origins to our customers, each of which possesses unique taste and flavour profiles specific to its region. We source from amongst the Top 50 cacao farms and co-operatives around the world who have been recognised and awarded by the 'Cocoa Of Excellence Board' and ALL

  • SMALL BATCH

    In our micro chocolate factory in Mumbai, we use traditional European artisanal techniques to handcraft our bean to bar chocolate in small batches. The custom designed machinery gives a distinct texture refinement, resulting in high quality chocolate that is packed with flavour and has smooth texture.

BOUTIQUE EVENTS

From birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, tasting menu-style dinners, media events, product launches… Our space is custom-designed to host any boutique event or occasion that demands an intimate setting. 

Our Process

OUR BEAN TO BAR PROCESS

Using traditional European artisanal techniques and custom-designed machinery, our bean-to-bar process is tailor-made to handcraft small-batch chocolate bars and confections from cacao of the finest origins.

Source

The pursuit of real chocolate begins with our discoveries of organic, single-origin cacao from around the world. We follow ethical and direct trade with cocoa farmers and co-operatives in India and select countries in Africa and Central America. Our partner farms include Öko-Caribe in Dominican Republic, Costa Esmeraldas in Ecuador and Kokoa Kamili in the heart of Tanzania. Know more about Our Origins here (add link to Our Origins page).
La Folie’s emphasis on quality extends to all the raw material. To infuse natural flavours in our inclusion bars, we source organic cane sugar, black jaggery, fresh fruits, nuts, herbs and spices from Mumbai’s local markets.

Sort

At our small batch chocolate factory in Mumbai, each batch of cacao is mindfully hand sorted and graded for quality.

Roast

This is the first step in creating flavour nuances of real chocolate. We slow roast the cacao beans at low temperatures, calculated with precision, to preserve their inherent flavours and nutritional value.

Winnow

The outer husks of the roasted beans are cracked open and the shells are separated from cocoa nibs. We donate the husks to organic farmers for their use as compost.

Grind

We use customised stone melangeurs to break down and grind small batches of cocoa nibs, releasing their rich flavour and extracting the cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is added into the melangeur, along with organic cane sugar, to acquire a smooth chocolate mass.

Refine and Conche

Conching is the process of agitating and aerating liquid chocolate to remove acidity and add depth to its flavour. We refine and conche the chocolate mass for a further 48 hours to achieve a sensational mouthfeel and an exceptionally delicious taste.

Temper and Mould

Heat, cool, reheat… We temper chocolate so that every bar features a flawless sheen and that soul-satisfying, crisp ‘snap’. Then, the liquid chocolate is set in La Folie’s signature chocolate moulds.

Package

We pack each chocolate bar by hand in an oxygen-barrier pouch to retain its pristine quality.