Patrick Roger, cocoa sculptor

With his slender silhouette and sparkling, mischievous eyes, chocolate-maker Patrick Roger welcomes visitors to his workshop in Sceaux [Hauts-de-Seine]. Made of concrete and glass, the space bathed in natural light has the air of a contemporary art gallery, with large aluminum heads hanging in the middle of the room and a bronze sofa on the work table. " Lie down on it. You'll see, it's comfortable", says the chocolatier who created these pieces. "Right now, I'm making a bed several meters wide, so it's even more fun. "The seating is indeed very pleasant, but here it gives the impression of being in a shrink's office in a minimalist version of Charlie et la Chocolaterie. On the other side of the bay window, the teams make the sweets for which the chocolatier is famous.

At one with chocolate

Patrick Roger can eat between 500 grams and 3 kilos of chocolate a day, without gaining weight! He's one with chocolate. His metabolism has adapted. During his creative process, when sculpting chocolate, his hands remain at the same temperature despite the effort. They don't heat up, preventing the solid from melting. He can't explain this phenomenon: " Chocolate is a very difficult material. I simply put myself in a working condition. "The chocolate used specifically for the sculptures is melted again and again for a new work. The creative result is temporary - too temporary for Patrick Roger, who has long enjoyed challenging the ephemeral. He transforms chocolate sculptures into works in bronze, glass or iron using molds. it's a very complicated step to do with sculpted chocolate," he says, "I may have 20,000 or 30,000 molds."Once molded, his chocolate works are reborn in the foundry in a new texture and are then exhibited in museums, galleries or private collectors' homes.

michel Labelle / DR

Skin-deep sensitivity

Nothing predestined Patrick Roger for a career in the arts: " I didn't go to the Beaux-Arts, I don't draw and I didn't go to museums as a child. I'm not part of the elite. I come from Le Poislay [Loir-et-Cher], in the Perche region, where there was nothing. No castle, no river, no traffic lights ..." At school, he was a failure and was directed towards an apprenticeship in pastry-making - like, in the past, his father, who was a baker. He finished 2ᵉ out of 100 in the competition and, at the age of 18, joined pastry chef-caterer Pierre Mauduit as a commis. After a short stint in the pastry shop, where he did not excel, he was placed in the chocolate shop, and it was a revelation. Until then, he had never eaten good chocolate.

He also discovered his own taste, of which he was unaware: " Claire Damon, the head pastry chef, says that taste is innate. It gives me goose bumps. "And to show off his arms. Patrick Roger is a sensitive man. In 1998, he opened his first boutique in Sceaux and, two years later, was awarded the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France), thanks in no small part to his chocolate sculpture Harold, a seated, life-size cocoa planter weighing 62 kilos. For posterity's sake, Harold will be transformed into a bronze sculpture, cast after the original for a final weight of 122 kilos. " When I went to the foundry to pick it up, it was between works by two 'unknowns', Giacometti and Brancusi. "As he recounts this memory, he turns to one of his employees pushing a cart of chocolates: " Who's the best sculptor? "The other replies, " Brancusi! "and Patrick Roger laughingly retorts: " C***ard! That's because he's Romanian like you! "The insult has a sweet taste in his mouth, revealing a game and complicity between him and his employees.

michel Labelle

Chance and encounters

On a more serious note, how did the chocolatier come to work with bronze, aluminum, glass and iron? One of my best customers in Sceaux, Madame Rattier, took me one day to the Coubertin Foundry in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse [Yvelines]. There I met the sculptor Gualtiero Busato (1941-2025) and discovered the Parisian gallery of Alain Richarme and Michel Poletti. I realized that my window sculptures could become permanent fixtures. "A new world opened up for him. From then on, he played around, experimenting with abstract and realistic forms and transposing them joyfully. A container sits in the workshop parking lot, all black inside. Suddenly, the light carves out shapes in an enveloping, spellbinding soundtrack. The effect is striking and captivating. You're not sure what you're seeing, but you sense something that seems to come from the depths of time. The work is called Bain. It's an overwhelming experience.

Back in the studio, Patrick Roger opens a drawer and takes out his night notebook: " I write down my ideas. "A few simple sketches, some annotations and that's it... He also points to his magical book, Grands singes by Cyril Ruoso and Emmanuelle Grundmann, published in 2008 by Empreinte & Territoires, which reveals that primates reflect our society. He drew his inspiration from it. For Patrick Roger has a veritable pet shop behind him: chimpanzees, orangutans, lionesses, emperor penguins... Animals fascinate him, as does dendrology (the science of tree recognition). However, he is not insensitive to world news and, on another level, to his personal moods and sensitivities. His inspiration is wide-ranging. His exhibitions are multiplying: " My business is service. So was my first exhibition. You don't deliver a wedding cake on a Sunday morning, but on a Saturday evening. It's the same with art. "Patrick Roger, hyperactive, is all about "doing". " My background is motorcycling and speed. I feel close to champions. When Valentino Rossi or Marc Márquez (both multiple world champions in Moto Grand Prix) win, they celebrate with the public and get right back into the next competition. I have the same mechanism. "

His "sustainable" works are spread across several warehouses, including one a few kilometers from the workshop. The building is partly under construction, and the sculptures are a mess: Emmanuel and Brigitte (yes, the Macrons!), Gérard (Depardieu), Annie Lennox... The Carpate work passes under the eye of the photographer who immortalizes it. " It was a bronze door that was to be placed on a store in Tokyo. Negotiations broke down," confides a dejected Patrick Roger. Further on, a piece that adorned the Moscow boutique. " Fifteen days after opening, Covid began. We closed. "Today, Patrick Roger has nine boutiques in Paris and its suburbs. The one on the Madeleine even has a gallery space. Ephemeral and perennial works cohabit happily. The palate and the eyes are delighted.