After sailing around the world in a small yacht, I came home in search of new friendships and joined a local pétanque club — more for the company than the sport. One day, I brought along a tray of millionaire’s shortbread. A retired chef tried it, nodded thoughtfully, and said, 

“It’s good… but you should temper the chocolate.”

That offhand comment launched me into the world of chocolate-making. Five years later, I’m still hooked — experimenting, learning, and solving the kinds of challenges that both hobbyist and professional chocolatiers face every day.

From figuring out how to stop cocoa butter clogging airbrushes, to designing better ways to store filled bonbons or enrobe tricky centres, I started creating practical solutions for myself — and then realised others might benefit from them too.

ChocoX was born from that same spirit of curiosity, innovation, and sharing. Today, I’ve developed tools like:

• The Ganache Water Activity & Shelf Life Calculator, powered by machine learning

• A Small Label QR Code Printer, perfect for artisan producers

• A soon-to-launch Stock Control & Batch Code System, built for makers managing small-batch inventory

• And a scientific eBook, Chocolate Science, for anyone who wants to understand the “why” behind what we do in the kitchen

There are even patents pending for tools like a heated airbrush and compact enrober designs created specifically for small-scale production.

No matter your craft — chocolate, skincare, or small-batch food — I hope these tools help make your work easier, more accurate, and more enjoyable.

And yes — I now use tempered chocolate on my millionaire’s shortbread.