Easter 2023 L’École Valrhona Luko Egg
Luko: an iconoclastic egg
This year, L’École Valrhona has entrusted Virgilia Lebigre with the task of creating its latest Easter egg.This will be a first for the young chef, whose personal interpretation of the challenge is a strong ethically conscious statement.
While Virgilia wanted her egg to be intense and powerful, she also wanted it to reveal an unsuspected softness deep inside.
Made from Komuntu 80% - Valrhona’s iconic 100th anniversary couverture chocolate - Luko is an ode to nature whose name means “bloom” in Esperanto. This moniker perfectly encapsulates both its power and its fragility.
With this creation, I want to pay tribute to biodiversity by honoring the cocoa bean, which is at the root of all Valrhona’s chocolate
Getting back to our roots
The Luko egg’s key aim is to showcase chocolate as a material in its raw state, and this is reflected in all the different chocolate-making techniques it uses. The egg is not smooth or shiny; in fact, it might have emerged straight out of the ground.
Its deliberately raw appearance is a nod to the plantation, the place where everything begins when a cacao seed bursts into life. Mixing sculpture and modeling techniques, this egg takes us back to cocoa’s very origins.
The woody aromatic power and roasted nib notes of Komuntu 80% bring out the sculpted shape’s intense feel, which contrasts with the sweetness of the egg's creamy caramel core.