Jul 29, 2026 · 33 min · 14 segments
René Bollier is the President and Executive Chef of André's Confiserie Suisse. Grandson of founders André and Elsbeth Bollier, Bollier began his training at age 11 under his family's guidance. After…
René BollierGuestTish BoyleHostWhat, um, in your opinion, what makes, what characterizes Swiss chocolate and really sets it apart from French chocolate, for example, or Italian chocolate? I mean, they're all so different, I know.
The milk chocolate, I think, really is where the Swiss got, became very famous for.
He was a Swiss- A candle maker who was put out of business by the invention of the kerosene lamp.
the first one who, he, he had a father-in-law who was Henry Cailler, who, uh, Cailler is a chocolate brand you still see in Switzerland.
But, um, Henry, he took Henry Cailler, his father-in-law's dark chocolate, and Henry Nestle's new baby formula, with, which was for all intents and purposes powdered milk, and combined the two to make the first successful milk chocolate.
I mean, the Swiss, uh, we always talk about at Andre's the difference between a good product and a great product is the willingness to take steps that aren't always easy and aren't always- and can be very labor-intensive.
And those steps might not necessarily be a, customers might not be able to put their finger on what those steps were, but they'll notice in the end product.
And the Swiss really, um, they started conching their chocolate for an excessively long time.
So the conching process is basically when after you refine, after you make the chocolate, uh, you refine it.
You work it back and forth with either stainless steel or, or stone rollers, and that releases a lot of the volatiles in the chocolate, the vinegars.
Uh, it also rounds out all the molecules in the chocolate and gives you a very smooth mouth feel.
And they started doing it for up to 72 hours, which gave the, their chocolates a beautiful mouth feel.
Um, and then it also gave it a really intense caramel flavor because during that process you're creating a tremendous amount of friction and heat.
What, um, in your opinion, what makes, what characterizes Swiss chocolate and really sets it apart from French chocolate, for example, or Italian chocolate? I mean, they're all so different, I know.
The milk chocolate, I think, really is where the Swiss got, became very famous for.
He was a Swiss- A candle maker who was put out of business by the invention of the kerosene lamp.
the first one who, he, he had a father-in-law who was Henry Cailler, who, uh, Cailler is a chocolate brand you still see in Switzerland.
But, um, Henry, he took Henry Cailler, his father-in-law's dark chocolate, and Henry Nestle's new baby formula, with, which was for all intents and purposes powdered milk, and combined the two to make the first successful milk chocolate.
I mean, the Swiss, uh, we always talk about at Andre's the difference between a good product and a great product is the willingness to take steps that aren't always easy and aren't always- and can be very labor-intensive.
And those steps might not necessarily be a, customers might not be able to put their finger on what those steps were, but they'll notice in the end product.
And the Swiss really, um, they started conching their chocolate for an excessively long time.
So the conching process is basically when after you refine, after you make the chocolate, uh, you refine it.
You work it back and forth with either stainless steel or, or stone rollers, and that releases a lot of the volatiles in the chocolate, the vinegars.
Uh, it also rounds out all the molecules in the chocolate and gives you a very smooth mouth feel.
And they started doing it for up to 72 hours, which gave the, their chocolates a beautiful mouth feel.
Um, and then it also gave it a really intense caramel flavor because during that process you're creating a tremendous amount of friction and heat.
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