French-Inspired Holiday Chocolates from Flora Lazar

Flora’s signature chocolates. All photos: floraconfections.com

Flora Lazar is serious about sweets, and French-inspired sweets in particular. After decades spent working in the business and non-profit worlds, she finally followed her instincts—and she hasn’t looked back. After attending the “L’Art de la Pâtisserie” program at the French Pastry School of Chicago, she founded Flora Confections, her Chicago-based artisan chocolate and pastry company. Here, Flora turns out hand-crafted chocolates to the delight of her clients.

Flora’s chocolate hearts.

In addition to spreading the sweetness in the Chicago area, Flora contributes a food column to the Huffington Post and writes the Salted Caramel blog, where she chronicles her experiences in chocolate tasting, jam making, and other sweet adventures.

In addition to her culinary endeavors, Flora has recently produced the film Kings of Pastry (directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus), which follows some of France’s premiere pâtissiers (pastry chefs) as they prep for the prestigious “Meilleurs Ouvriers de France” competition (MOF). This competition recognizes France’s finest artisans in categories ranging from cabinetry to cheese making. It’s no surprise that those competing for the MOF distinction in the field of pastry are up against stiff competition and must meet incredibly high standards. We can’t wait to see how it all unfolds! The film will be screened at the Sheffield, Amsterdam, and Berlin Film Festivals and will air on the BBC and other channels throughout Europe.

In the meantime, Flora continues to spread the spirit of culinary excellence in the United States… one chocolate at a time.

To visit the Flora Confections website, click here.

To read Flora’s blog, Salted Caramel, click here.

Written by Tory Hoen for the HiP Paris Blog. Looking for a fabulous vacation rental in Paris, Provence, or Tuscany? Check out Haven in Paris.