News · 19 October 2026
Salon du Chocolat 2026 in Paris: what to see and learn
Five days of pastry demonstrations, chocolate competitions and cocoa producers at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Here's what's on, what to watch if you're weighing a career change, and where a 10-week course fits.
Salon du Chocolat 2026 fills Pavilion 5 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from Wednesday 28 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, from 10:00 to 19:00 every day.[1] The evening before, Tuesday 27 October, there's an opening night from 19:00 to 22:00, by special access only.[1][3]
Its full name these days is the Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie, and the organiser puts its own key figures at 96,000 participants, 240 exhibitors and more than a hundred hours of events.[12] Thinking of trading your current job for a pastry kitchen? That's five days of the trade under one roof. Below you'll find what's on, what to watch with a career change in mind, and what a 10-week course really covers.
When is Salon du Chocolat 2026, and what do tickets cost?
Each ticket gets one person in for one day, and you pick the day. Weekday tickets are for 28 to 30 October, weekend tickets for 31 October or 1 November.[2]
| Ticket | Weekday (28–30 Oct) | Weekend (31 Oct–1 Nov) |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | €16 | €20 |
| Student, with a current student card | €14 | €17 |
| Professional pass, BtoB Village and the whole show[11] | €20 for one day, €50 for three days | |
A late-day ticket costs €10 and gets you in from 17:00 to 19:00.[2] Two hours goes fast at a show this size, though. Plan a full day: there's no re-entry, so once you leave, you're out.[3] To get there, take Metro line 12 or tram T3 to Porte de Versailles.[3]
What's on at the 2026 show?
Start with the Pastry Show stage. This year around fifty chefs from palace hotels and leading houses take turns on it,[6] and you don't need to book a seat.[7]
Choco'Live is new this year: a space in Pavilion 5.3 for competitions and masterclasses.[4] The dates to note:[4]
| Day | Time | What's on |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 28 October and Sunday 1 November | 10:00–14:00 | Savoury demonstrations by Gault&Millau chefs |
| Thursday 29 October | 10:00–13:00 | Master du Meilleur Pain au Chocolat 2026, the fifth edition; winners announced at 14:00 on the Cacao Show stage |
| Friday 30 October | 10:00–14:00 | Sphère Féérique: five amateurs, each paired with a professional, make a chocolate sphere |
| Saturday 31 October | 13:00–16:00 | Meilleur Pâtissier Carrefour: six pastry chefs selected to represent their regions on a "Cacao & Fruits" theme |
Over on the Cacao Show stage in Pavilion 5.1, producers, experts and chocolatiers give talks and tastings that anyone can join, covering origins, craft, sustainability and new trends.[9] The prize-givings happen there too: the Meilleur Apprenti de France, the Paris-Brest Grand Prix and a new Best Hot Chocolate Competition.[5]
Walk the Allée de l'Inspiration for nearly 20 original works, sculptures on the theme "Incandescence" among them, and vote for your favourite on the way out.[5] Santa's House is all advent calendars and Yule logs by well-known chefs.[5] And in the cocoa producers' area, you can follow the bean from the pod to the first stages of chocolate making.[10]
Want to make something yourself? That's the Ateliers Gourmands, with more than 230 workshops this year.[8] You register and pay for each one, on top of your entry ticket: €25 for a one-hour adult workshop (from age 13), €35 for a 90-minute Premium workshop on chocolate pairings.[7] One catch: they run in French only.[5]
What should you watch if you're thinking of a pastry career?
Watch the hands, not the plates. A finished entremets tells you very little. The gestures that build it tell you whether the work pulls you in.
Drawn to bread and viennoiserie? Go on Thursday morning. The judges score each pain au chocolat on baking, lamination, fermentation, taste and chocolate.[4] Chocolate is just one of those five. That's the job, honestly: the chocolate often comes at the end of a long process that starts with dough.
Starting from zero? Friday is your day. In the Sphère Féérique, five amateurs each work beside a professional.[4] Watching the two side by side is a fast lesson in what training changes.
Picture your own shop one day? Then head for the business side in Pavilion 5.2. The BtoB Village gathers suppliers of machinery, packaging and specialised ingredients, and only professionals get in.[11] Its Choco'Lab talks go from sourcing raw materials all the way to running a business.[9]
What does a 10-week pastry course cover?
A day at the show can tell you whether the craft excites you. It can't tell you how you'll feel on your tenth tray of croissants. Only time at the bench answers that, and that's what our 10-week Certificate in Pastry, Chocolate and Bakery in Lucerne is built for.[14]
| Certificate in Pastry, Chocolate and Bakery | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Length | 10 weeks, 180 kitchen hours |
| Practical labs | Pastry & Bakery Foundations; Classic Patisserie; Boulangerie & Viennoiserie; Chocolate Work Foundations |
| Academic module | Food Safety |
| Internship | None |
| Entry | Age 17 or over; high school diploma or equivalent; English at IELTS 5.0 or equivalent; no pastry experience needed |
| Fee, all-inclusive | CHF 23,025 (about €24,900), uniforms and equipment included |
We converted the fee at the European Central Bank's reference rate of 0.9261 francs per euro on 19 October 2026.[13]
We teach the course entirely in English,[15] which helps if the French-only workshops in Paris leave you watching from the side. Chocolate is one lab of four, not the whole course: you also work on classic patisserie, and on the bread and viennoiserie that Thursday's competition is about.[14] This one has no internship. The six-month paid internships come with the year-long programmes, starting with the Diploma.[14] Want more after ten weeks? The Advanced Certificate moves on to ice creams and plated desserts, advanced chocolate pralines, and petits fours and petits gâteaux.[14] Published intakes include November 2026 and February 2027.[14]
Your next step: the 10-week Certificate page has the full module list and fee breakdown. Or take the two-minute fit check to see which pastry programme suits where you're starting from.