Chef Biography
Dominique Leborgne was born in Armentières, a small town in northern France, into a family who owned a gourmet store. At age 15 he refused to work in his parents’ gourmet shop and instead, apprenticed in the pastry shop across the street.
He then trained at the famous Dalloyau Gavillon pastry shop in Paris, where he learned to use 70% cocoa butter in all of his chocolates. In 1980, he then joined the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris where he worked his way up the pastry kitchen ladder, to assistant pastry chef. In 1985, he was offered the position of executive pastry chef at the new Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, DC.
He left the Willard in 1988 to open his own Le Palais du Chocolat on 19th Street NW. In May of 1993, the Great Chefs television crew showed up to tape Chef Leborgne for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of the East television series, where he appeared in episode # 19, as well as several Great Chefs Chocolate specials. He passed away very young in June 1995.
Recipes
President’s Cake
Serving: 8 to 10 Print President’s Cake By Great Chefs November 20, 2015 The only thing more spectacular than the appearance of this chocolate cake is its taste. Flourless chocolate cake is laced with rum syrup and layered with chocolate mousse. A strip of pure chocolate is wrapped around the cake, and it is topped […]
Swans with White Chocolate Mousse
Serving: 8 Print Swans with White Chocolate Mousse By Great Chefs November 10, 2015 These decorative cream puff swans are quite simple to make, and the white chocolate mousse filling is delicious. If making the swans is intimidating, simply form the cream puff dough into round puffs or long éclairs. The cream puffs, mousse, raspberry […]