History
Having arrived in Brussels from his native Switzerland, Jean Neuhaus opened an apothecary shop in 1857 at the Galerie de la Reine, near the Grand Place. Liquorices, guimauves (similar to marshmallows) and dark chocolate tablets soon joined more traditional preparations on the display counter.
With the assistance of his son Frédéric, he spent an increasing amount of time and effort in preparing and inventing new delicacies to the point where the regular pharmaceutical products gradually ended up making way for them.
In 1912, the year of Frédéric's death, his son Jean II created the first chocolate-filled bonbons or pralines. They were immediately successful. They were followed by another innovation. Louise Agostini, Jean's wife, realised that the pralines were getting crushed inside the paper cornet bags used to wrap them up. Together with her husband, she developed a gift wrap box in 1915 which became known as a the ballotin and was later patented.
Jean's son-in-law, Adelson de Gavre, took over the running of the business. In 1958, he created a series of highly acclaimed pralines such as the Caprice and the Tentation. Suzanne Neuhaus, his wife, specialised in decoration and gift wrapping. The company expanded and stores soon appeared across the country and abroad.
Read more about this topic: Neuhaus (chocolatier)
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