A pastry chef by training, Patrick Roger quickly specialized in the sculpture… of chocolate. Best worker in France in 2000, this expert chocolate maker also has seven shops in the Paris region and in Belgium.
We questioned him during his confinement, in his Paris workshop, about his practice of new technologies.
A favorite device?
In absolute terms, it's the iPhone 11, because I didn't have a cell phone a decade ago! It allows me to work 500 hours a month with long text messages and tens of thousands of archive photos of my sculptures. It is very time consuming, so you have to learn to moderate your daily use.
I also manage with my smartphone the image that is given of my creations, in particular by recently checking the publications on Instagram.
I use my Canon 5D camera alongside the iPhone to immortalize behind the scenes of the work of the professional photographer who highlights my work, especially for social networks.
A favorite application?
Like everyone else, I use WhatsApp to keep in touch during my trips abroad.
As the chocolate sculpture is played to within a few tenths of a degree, we have internally developed an application to control the temperature of cold rooms, which include sensors. I can check everything from anywhere on my smartphone.
In general, I am wary of applications, because they are not always safe. I worry about the data they collect. It is still useful for an entrepreneur from a commercial point of view to see where our best sales are made.
An essential innovation?
I would need an app to easily and instinctively classify all the photos I take every day. I have 19,000 right now on my smartphone that I would like to geotag more easily than with my simple memory (laughs).
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We use the first robot vacuum cleaners to clean the chocolate dust in the workshop. Some robots can already sculpt chocolate, but that takes away some of the sensuality…
Finally, I can't wait for sensors and data to measure the wear of the very sophisticated machines that we use to shape chocolate.
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