In 1968, Monsieur Jantou de Toulouse sold his cake shop in Gaillac to his employee Yves Thuriès. At the outset, this small business operated with just one apprentice. It was a time of many competitions and prizes. Yves Thuriès took part in the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (Best Craft Worker in France). His work was magnificent and he was successful in two disciplines, an achievement which had never been seen before. Everybody celebrated his success and he won the support of the entire profession and was contacted by numerous gastronomy journalists.

In 1977, Yves Thuriès published the first volume of “La Pâtisserie Française”. It was the first recipe book to have so many photo illustrations. This Encyclopaedia, translated into several languages, became a reference for more than 200,000 professionals.


In 1978, Yves Thuriès moved to the superb hilltop village of Cordes sur Ciel, where he created a patisserie laboratory. The following year, he was awarded the Culinary Trophy, giving him the title of Chef of the Year.


In 1980, Yves Thuriès purchased Le Grand Ecuyer restaurant which he turned into the most popular establishment in the region. He played host to many important figures here such as François Mitterrand and the Queen Mother.

In the same year, he exported his expertise throughout the world and successively created patisseries in Dakar and Abidjan, then in the United States, where he trained teams in Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco. He also gave demonstrations in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and also Japan, Thailand and the People’s Republic of China.



In 1985, Yves Thuriès purchased L'Hostellerie du Vieux Cordes and turned it into his bistro. Three years later, he created Thuriès Magazine Gastronomie, designed, above all, for professionals, in which he presented modern, inventive and active styles of patisserie.

Then, in 1989, the Art of Sugar Museum was opened at the very top of Cordes sur Ciel. Two exhibition rooms combining about one hundred artistic creations, all made exclusively with sugar. In 1991, he created and launched a range of luxury chocolates, manufactured traditionally by the Chocolaterie Excellence.



Yves Thuriès was appointed President of the “Meilleurs Ouvriers de France” for the Southwest Region in 1995.

In the following year the first bars of Marbled chocolate were produced: an original chocolate combining two colours and two flavours. This chocolate was already produced following artisanal methods, by mixing black and white chocolates, thus producing more or less black or white squares. Therefore, Yves Thuriès called upon the services of an engineer to design a machine for making bars of this chocolate with a more attractive and smoother marble effect.

Today, in the worlds of food, publishing and chocolate, Yves Thuriès generates a large turnover and employs more than 200 people.