Renowned Chef Chocolatier Mathieu Davoine pays homage to the origins of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s iconic watch, Reverso in an experimental gastronomic journey into the world of chocolate at the famous 1931 Café in the Swiss luxury watchmaker’s latest collaboration under its Made of Makers programme, unveiled at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025.
Pushing the Boundaries of Classical Art
The Made of Makers programme draws a parallel between the worlds of horology and art, fostering collaborations with artists, designers, and craftsmen from disciplines outside watchmaking, who share the Maison’s values of creativity, expertise, and precision. The programme challenges the perception of classical art as static or bound to the past, instead emphasising its continuous reinvention and positioning it as a leading source of creativity today.
Just as today’s classics were once seen as radical at their inception, the Made of Makers programme explores how traditional forms and techniques can be reinvented through new materials and media, offering a fresh perspective on the dialogue between past and present. Like the watchmakers of La Grande Maison, these artists respect tradition as a foundation for creativity, while pushing boundaries and exploring new horizons, highlighting how both watchmaking and classical art express human creativity, reflect the culture of an era and trigger emotions.
To date, the Made of Makers community has embraced the worlds of contemporary art, gastronomy, music and perfumery – with artists including Zimoun (Switzerland), Michael Murphy (USA), Guillaume Marmin (France), lettering artist Alex Trochut (Spain/USA), pastry chef Nina Métayer (France), mixologist Matthias Giroud (France), digital media artist Yiyun Kang (Korea), musician TØKIO M¥ERS (UK), multi-media artist Brendi Wedinger (USA), Chef Himanshu Saini (India), street light-painter Roy Wang (China) and perfumer Nicolas Bonneville (France).
This new collaboration with Mathieu Davoine (France/Switzerland) adds the art of chocolaterie to the Made of Makers portfolio.
The Chocolate Craftsman
This year, Jaeger-LeCoultre invites guests to enjoy a unique gastronomic experience based on chocolate through its collaboration with The Chocolate Craftsman, Mathieu Davoine. The Geneva-based chef chocolatier’s experimental approach to chocolate-making combines time-honoured craftsmanship with avant-garde techniques and exceptional creative imagination to explore a new realm of flavour and artistry based on chocolate.
A craftsman at heart, he unites artistic talent and bold imagination with great technical skill, combining a fascination with flavour and texture with a sculptor’s approach to visual presentation. Taking inspiration from sources as varied as a painting seen in a museum or something observed in the natural world, he spends a great deal of time testing and playing with new ideas in his laboratory.
For Mathieu Davoine, chocolate provides a perfect outlet for his creativity, enabling him to dive deep into the complex process of transforming cacao beans into exquisite creations that capture the magic of chocolate. It allows him to combine gastronomy with artistic imagination and craftsmanship.
“For me, discovering chocolate was a revelation,” he explained.
“I cannot think of any other single ingredient that offers so much artistic possibility thanks to all of the forms it can take – powder, liquid, cream, foam, jelly, crunchy solid and more. And when you are willing to experiment with flavours and go beyond the conventional blends, there’s almost no limit to the possibilities.”
Encapsulating Mathieu Davoine’s signature style, the chocolate delights that he has created exclusively for La Grande Maison challenge preconceptions and push the limits of what chocolate can be.
Praline, truffle fudge: using chocolate in all its forms, he has combined familiar and unconventional textures to add an exciting sensory twist to the tasting experience.
Olive, mushroom, pollen: with ‘impossible’ blends of flavours and ingredients, he has challenged the boundaries of chocolate gastronomy to create new and surprising harmonies, with layers of skilfully blended and balanced flavours that evolve in the mouth.
Micro balls, sculptures, trompe-l’oeil: in the visual presentation of the delights, he has employed trompe-l’oeil techniques, harnessing unexpected proportions, shapes and surface finishes to create optical illusions that surprise and delight, elevating the experience of biting into the chocolate.
Challenging the Preconceptions of Chocolate Gastronomy
With the four chocolate delights that will be offered to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s guests at the 1931 Café, Mathieu Davoine pays homage to the origins of the Reverso by taking visual inspiration from the world of polo, and to the home of Jaeger-LeCoultre by incorporating ingredients from the Vallée de Joux.
“The creative direction that Jaeger-LeCoultre gave me was a very interesting challenge,” Mathieu said.
“While the visual richness of polo provided many ideas, I also wanted to express the feeling of polo, so I have combined literal and conceptual references to different aspects of the game. To include ingredients from the Vallée de Joux, I had to think beyond the obvious nuts and berries that are traditionally associated with chocolate and combine them with other, very unconventional flavours and scents from the valley.”
Harmonie de Chocolat celebrates the multi-faceted character of chocolate, its swirling shape symbolising the energy and movement of players and horses on the polo field. A chocolate sablébiscuit is topped withdark chocolate mousse, which conceals the surprise of crisp cacao ‘pearls’, and finished with a milk chocolate ganache sprinkled with hazelnuts.
Galop des Bois combines the textures of crisp praline, airy mousse and soft sponge cake in the form of a polo ball surrounded by the letters of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s name executed in dark chocolate. It’s perfectly balanced flavour profile combines white chocolate and vanilla with Vallée de Joux ingredients: forest fruits, hazelnuts and – unexpectedly – porcini mushrooms.
Éclat de Caviar unites the flavours of black olives and chocolate, complemented by an infusion made from the delicate young shoots of Vallée de Joux fir trees. Presented in a metal tin evoking the shoe polish for the polo players’ boots, the crisp coating of the shiny chocolate ‘caviar pearls’ delivers a sensory surprise, as they give way to an unctuous chocolate cream, airy olive tapenade and crunchy biscuit.
‘Douceur du Cavalier’ elevates the petit écolier – a classical chocolate-coated biscuit beloved by every French school child – into a sophisticated chocolate treat for the players returning from the polo field. The crisp sablé biscuit is made to a special recipe incorporating Vallée de Joux pollen; it is topped with as unctuous chocolate ganache and meadowsweet jelly, the whole ensemble being coated in milk chocolate.
The tasting experience is amplified by the guest’s participation: in each case, the person can increase the dosage of the respective Vallée de Joux ingredient before tasting the delight. To complement the four delights, Mathieu Davoine has created a special beverage made from the fleshy pulp – also known as baba or mucilage – that surrounds the beans inside a ripe cacao pod.
With a mildly sweet and tangy ‘tropical fruit’ flavour, the pulp is essential to the natural fermentation process that the beans must go through before being dried and eventually roasted. Sipped between each of the bites, it acts as a palate-cleanser and an additional layer of flavour.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Chef Chocolatier Mathieu Davoine,” said Jérôme Lambert, Chief Executive Officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre.
“His talent, expertise and originality add an exciting new dimension to our Made of Makers programme, and the values that he shares with our Maison – passion, humility and a dedication to craftsmanship and innovation – make him a natural partner for us.
“At Jaeger-LeCoultre we strongly believe in the convergence of craftsmanship across many disciplines, and working with a maestro of chocolate like Mathieu Davoine allows us to explore uncharted territories where the worlds of art, gastronomy and watchmaking intersect.”