Rodolphe Lindt
{{Short description|Swiss chocolatier and inventor (1855–1909)}}
{{Infobox person
|image = Rodolphe lindt portrait c1881.jpg
|image_size = 200
|caption = Lindt c. 1881
|birth_date = 16 July 1855
|birth_place = Bern, Switzerland
|death_date = {{death date and age|1909|2|20|1855|7|16|df=y}}
|death_place = Bern, Switzerland
|nationality = Swiss
|occupation = Chocolatier
|known_for = Founder of Lindt
Inventor of conching
}}
Rudolf Lindt (16 July 1855 – 20 February 1909), often known by his francized name Rodolphe Lindt, was a Swiss chocolate maker, chocolatier and inventor. He founded the Lindt brand of Swiss chocolate and invented the conching machine{{cite web|website=Swissinfo|author=Thomas Stephens|title=The pioneers of Switzerland's 'Chocolate Revolution'|date=13 December 2017|accessdate=10 April 2021|url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/cocoa-kings_the-pioneers-of-switzerland-s--chocolate-revolution-/43592024}} and other processes to improve the quality of chocolate.{{cite web|title=Rodolphe Lindt|url=http://www.swissworld.org/en/people/portraits_chocolate_makers/rodolphe_lindt/|publisher=Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland|accessdate=February 24, 2013}}
Life
Lindt was born on 16 July 1855 in Bern, to pharmacist and politician Johann Rudolf Lindt and his wife Amalia Eugenia Salchli.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Historical Dictionary of Switzerland|language=fr|title=Lindt, Rudolf|accessdate=10 April 2021|author=Hürlimann, Katja|translator=Elena Vuille-Mondada|url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/030995/2008-11-27/}} Between 1873 and 1875 he did an apprenticeship in Lausanne with the Amédée Kohler & Fils chocolate company,{{cite web|url=https://www.lindt-spruengli.com/about-us/history/rodolphe-lindt|title=Rodolphe Lindt, Inventor and Innovator|website=Lindt & Sprüngli|accessdate=10 April 2021}} then managed by the sons of Charles-Amédée Kohler. In 1879, he founded his own chocolate factory in the Mattequartier, a section of the Old City of Bern.
In December 1879, he succeeded in improving the quality of chocolate by the development of the conching machine, a lengthwise stirring device which gives a finer consistency and lets undesired aromas evaporate. He was also among the first chocolate makers to add cocoa butter back into the chocolate mass (although not the very first one).{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDFrEAAAQBAJ | title=Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia | publisher=ABC-CLIO | author=Collins, Ross F. | year=2022 | pages=113 | isbn=9781440876080 | quote=Fry wondered about the possibility of actually returning some of the cocoa butter pressed out by Van Houten's machine to produce something better than the old dry, brittle cake that centuries of consumers had called "chocolate."}}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94SYBAAAQBAJ | title=Packaged Pleasures: How Technology and Marketing Revolutionized Desire | publisher=University of Chicago Press | author=Cross, Gary S. | year=2014 | pages=113 | isbn=9780226147383 | quote=Even more important, though, was the invention of the chocolate bar in 1847. Rodolphe Lindt in Switzerland and J. S. Fry in England blended cocoa butter and cocoa powder (from Van Houten's press) with sugar and molded the results into a bar.}} These two innovations contributed greatly to the high quality of Swiss chocolate.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDgxEAAAQBAJ | title=Rowntree's – The Early History | publisher=Pen and Sword History | author=Chrystal, Paul | year=2021 | pages=40 | isbn=9781526778925 | quote=The real break came in 1879 when the eating of chocolate went through the roof, largely due to Roderich [sic] Lindt's invention of 'melting chocolate', enriched by added cocoa butter with an enhanced texture created by extra mechanical conching (smoothing) of the cocoa mass.}}
In 1899, Lindt sold his factory and the secret of conching to the Chocolat Sprüngli AG, who have traded as Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG since.{{cite web|title=170 Years of Lindt & Sprungli - A success story|url=http://www.lindt-spruengli.com/about-us/history/|accessdate=May 7, 2018}} Sprüngli paid 1.5 million Gold francs for the marketing rights and the recipe.
Sources
- {{NDB|14|616|617|Lindt, Rudolf|Hans Rudolf Schmid|129429929}}
- Alex Capus: Patriarchen: Zehn Portraits. Albrecht Knaus Verlag, München 2006, {{ISBN|3-813502-73-2}}
References
{{Commons category}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindt, Rodolphe}}
Category:19th-century Swiss businesspeople