Valentine’s Day: marshmallow bear or chocolate heart? Our favourite creations to declare your love with a gourmet touch

On Valentine’s Day, chocolate is the discreet but precise language that expresses attention, shared pleasure and an assumed sense of indulgence. This year, 3 chocolate houses are signing creations designed as emotional gifts, to be offered to those who love the right taste and beautiful gestures.

The gift of chocolates for Valentine’s Day is not a conventional reflex when you choose pieces designed as genuine experiences. Behind a shiny shell or a delicately powdered heart, there’s an intention, a surprising texture, a flavor that lingers in the mouth. These delicacies speak of expertise, precision, and the gentle, almost physical rise that comes from well-crafted chocolate. Some of the world’s leading chocolate houses are turning Valentine’s Day into an occasion for culinary expression. Starting with Yannick Alléno, for whom chocolate becomes a natural extension of the kitchen. Nina Metayer, as precise and subtle in her chocolate creations as she is in her pastry creations. As for Jean-François Feuillette, his Ourson XL is absolutely irresistible!

Yannick Alléno, his Petits Cœurs set the tone

At Yannick Alléno, chocolate isn’t just sweet. It’s cooked. For Valentine’s Day 2026, the chef has created a collection in keeping with his approach: rigorous, sensory and profoundly gastronomic. Each piece plays on contrasts, between precise crispness, controlled melting and just-right creaminess.

The Petits Cœurs set the tone. Beneath their apparent softness, they reveal a fine work of texture: crispy puffed rice, Tahitian vanilla caviar, delicate praline and Iranian pistachio with a measured creaminess. Two expressions of the same gesture, designed to respond to each other in the mouth. The sensation dear to the chef’s heart: pleasure comes as much from the chew as from the aroma.

More daring, Cœur de Bouleau plays a livelier score. 55% dark chocolate from Ecuador envelops a luminous candied lemon, awakened by yuzu zest. The acidity is frank but never aggressive, carried by the crispness of the puffed rice that structures the whole. A surprising and refreshing piece that deliberately moves away from the purely comforting.

For the undecided – or the very greedy – the Duo d’amour brings these two creations together in a box designed as a dialogue. An elegant way to say a lot, without overdoing it.

📍 Practical info
Les Chocolats de Yannick Alléno
Available from 9 to 22 February 2026
Corner Galeries Lafayette Gourmet
Prices:
– Petits Cœurs (8 pieces): €25 / 80 g
– Cœur de Bouleau: €19 / 60 g
– Duo d’amour: €39

Nina Métayer, a flowery heart to share

At Nina Métayer, Valentine’s Day takes on floral and gourmet accents, inspired by French Polynesia and the encounters with producers that nourish her work. For 2026, the chef imagines chocolates as half-spoken declarations, delicate but frank, where sweetness blends with character.

The Cœur fleuri is the centerpiece of the collection. Beneath a 70% Santo Domingo dark chocolate shell, subtly powdered with bronze, lies a chocolate praline with buckwheat and almonds, punctuated with puffed rice. The bar is broken by hand, shared, and reveals a contrasting chew: the crispness of the grain, the roundness of the milk chocolate, and then that slight bitterness at the end that makes you want to come back for more. A delicacy conceived as a statement, both generous and nuanced.

More regressive, Petit cœur guimauve plays the tenderness card. The soft marshmallow, coated in a thin shell of dark chocolate, melts gently in the mouth. To be enjoyed by two or offered as a thoughtful, almost intimate gesture.

“French Polynesia, the beautiful encounters, the passion of the producers and this joie de vivre…” confides Nina Métayer, evoking the spirit of this collection fashioned in her La Rochelle chocolate factory.

📍 Practical info
Collection Saint-Valentin Nina Métayer
Pre-order from January 30, 2026 on Delicatisserie.com
In stores from February 4, 2026
Delivery by courier 7/7 in Paris and surrounding areas
Shipment to mainland France (excluding Corsica) via chocolat.ninametayer.com
Free collection points :
– Samaritaine, 9 rue de la Monnaie, Paris 1st
– Printemps du Goût, Printemps Homme, 8ᵉ étage, 59 rue de Caumartin, Paris 9th
Prices:
– Cœur fleuri (approx. 190 g): €25
– Box of 24 little marshmallow hearts (approx. 50 g): €16

Jean-François Feuillette, Léon l’Ourson la tendresse pralinée XL version

He looks wise, almost childlike, but make no mistake: the teddy bear imagined by Jean-François Feuillette hides a real gourmet temperament! For Valentine’s Day, Feuillette has created a creation that plays on emotion and memory, without ever taking the easy way out.

Beneath its delicately molded silhouette, the chocolate reveals a generous praline, worked with precision, where the hazelnut expresses itself with roundness. The fine, well-tempered shell cracks gently before giving way to a melting, comforting, almost enveloping texture. A far cry from mere decorative chocolate: here, every mouthful conveys the taste of a job well done, between pastry-making expertise and an assertive sweet tooth. A gift that expresses affection without words, ideal for those who love sincere sweets, to be savored slowly, for two or solo.

• A soft marshmallow combined with a roasted hazelnut praline
• A crunchy milk chocolate shell
• Artisanal production at the Feuillette chocolate factory in Blois
• Box of 10 bears, €25 incl. VAT

📍 Practical information

No store in Paris yet, but it’s coming! In the meantime, you can order Léon l’Ourson here