Irish-made chocolate and hazelnut praline profiteroles, decadent dark chocolate mousses, festive handmade Buche de Noel and zingy, light lemon meringue pies. These are the luscious deserts you would expect to see in five-star hotels, so it’s no surprise that is where Robert Bullock, founder and owner of Le Patissier, is sending his Irish handmade desserts. They are also landing on the supermarket shelves ahead of Christmas, exclusively as part of the Simply Better brand in Dunnes Stores.

Getting a big retail contract is no mean feat though, especially when you consider that when the idea for Le Patissier was born, Robert was at one of the lowest points in his life.

“I was born in Wembley and lived in south England growing up. Even from a young age I was determined to work in chef’s whites, so it was no surprise to anyone when I ended up going to catering college, and I was just caught by the pastry chef bug. I did a few years in London hotels, before doing a management course and getting into the aviation industry.”

After a few years with LSG Sky Chef working on catering for airlines, Robert moved to Aer Lingus managing its catering division. He then moved into management in Aer Lingus cargo, before becoming head of operations at Dublin airport.

Handmade mousse desserts.

“I had moved to Ireland and loved it, it was a great few years,” says Robert. “I was on the up and up, but the thing was that on this journey I had travelled much too far from the kitchen. I was head-hunted by another freight company which I worked with for a few months before staying stop. I just had to stop.”

Saying stop meant taking six months out to reflect on his next steps.

“It took a bit of soul searching, but I was determined to get back to my love of food.” The thing was though when the six months were up, it had appeared that the well had gone dry and there were no jobs in Robert’s niche area to be found.

“It was a serious wake-up call. I had no money, a mortgage to pay for and three kids to feed. I ended up on jobseekers allowance and was very grateful for that income. It was a particularly low point in my life.”

Like many things in life though, it was a chance encounter that led him on his Le Patissier path.

“My parents were visiting and we were out for dinner in Skerries when my mother proudly boasted to the chef that her son was a pastry chef and I was very good at what I did. So they asked me to prove it and I came back with a selection of homemade desserts. I got an order from them and that was the start of it.

Irish handmade hazelnut praline Paris brest.

“I literally started everything in my kitchen, filling orders, and the more orders I filled, the more the clients came on board. I knew I needed a bigger kitchen in order for the business to grow. I started first from a kitchen in Dunboyne in Meath, before I moved to the premises that we are now in, at Blanchardstown in Dublin. I grew organically and got fantastic support from Leader funding, which was not just the financial support I needed, but it also a tick of approval that I was doing something right.”

It’s this dedication to quality over the past five years that secured Robert catering contracts with the likes of the Aviva Stadium and the National Convention Centre, but Robert’s big retail acquisition was the day the Simply Better brand in Dunnes Stores came on board.

“It’s was a huge coux for us and also a great learning curve. One of the first products we worked on was our lemon meringue pie, which we won a Blás na hEireann award for, and it has just grown from there.

“Most importantly, they were on board with my commitment to four not-so-secret ingredients – Irish butter, sugar, eggs and flour. From the start my ethos was simple, to use quality Irish ingredients. So I was using Tipperary milk, and a Glanbia agent was just a few miles away from me; I used Clonarn Clover eggs and I am still with the vegetable man from Dunboyne who I started out with. In the beginning I was buying a dozen Granny Smith apples from him, now its boxes. I also still get a lot of my supplies from Paul’s Fine Food in Dunboyne.”

Irish handmade chocolate and hazelnut praline profiteroles.

Not even the pressure to make profit could coax him away from Irish.

“As we scaled up, I was never tempted to compromise on quality. There are plenty of other companies operating at different levels in the dessert category. We do high-end and we do it well, and we want to offer customers a quality alternative. We want consumers to know that it doesn’t have to be powdered mixes from Belgium or tart shells from Asia. Irish ingredients prepared well, there is real beauty in that.”

Irish handmade bûche de Noël.