A Quest for the Culinary Peak

BIO

About Chef Patrick

Chef Patrick’s Gourmet Foods offers authentic gourmet frozen croissants and pain au chocolat, hand made in Rockford, by Chef Patrick, a French classically trained pastry chef who was born and raised in France.

Founded by Ruth and Patrick Bourachot, Chef Patrick products can be purchased directly from their location at Rockford Plaza or at any one of their many vendors located throughout the South Georgian Bay area and beyond.

Prior to starting Chef Patrick, Ruth, a food and beverage director, and Patrick, a French-trained chef, applied their skills and passion for food across Canada at some of the most refined and well-regarded hotels in the country, winning awards along the way. In 2005, the couple followed their dream to take their cumulative experiences and open Café Chartreuse in Collingwood.

The unique French-style cafe offered a rotating chalkboard menu featuring fresh food made in-house daily using as many local ingredients as they could find. The vision was that you could have a quick, healthy lunch without having to do fast takeout or eat greasy food.

They also offered frozen foods for sale through the cafe, which was such a hit that they could barely keep up with demand. So, after almost 10 years, Ruth and Patrick sold Café Chartreuse to focus on catering and bring Chef Patrick’s Gourmet Frozen foods to the retail market.

Looking forward, they decided to take the best items from the cafe and offer them to their customers differently. Namely, the hand-rolled butter croissants, signature pain au chocolat.  Chef Patrick’s signature make-at-home croissants evolved from a dozen pieces in a ziplock bag with a sticker attached, into a resealable brown bag with a tag, to their new custom-printed bags that can be purchased across the region.  “I’ve enjoyed watching the evolution of our product as we have progressed.” says Ruth, merchandising is a very important part of retail sales, and we’re so pleased with the way our current packaging looks.  We feel that it represents our brand very well’.

Several local and artisanal food vendors offer Chef Patrick’s Gourmet Foods, either putting their own spin on it, like offering a homemade sandwich on a freshly baked croissant, or in their retail store for consumers to bring home and bake. “We really tried to make it so that you can have gourmet food, even at home,” says Ruth.

Their next step is growing and distributing their products even further, but they are determined to only work with like-minded businesses so they can always keep the integrity and quality of their products. “We are really pleased that we have so many great gourmet food shops,” said Ruth, “we’re an artisanal product and we want to work with small businesses because we’re a small business.”

Thank you to everyone who has enjoyed Chef Patrick Croissants and Pain au Chocolat.  We appreciate your business and referrals.