French baking on offer at Whanganui's The Quay Kitchen

Carolyn Wills shows off a small selection of her patisserie items.

Carolyn Wills has worked for the Roux brothers and Gordon Ramsay in London; now she's back home in Whanganui creating French pastries.

Ms Wills opened The Quay Kitchen four weeks ago behind The Burrow in the Taylor's Landing mall on Taupo Quay. She supplies The Burrow with a range of patisserie and also takes private orders from customers.

"I trained as a chef at the Golden Oaks in Whanganui in the late 1980s," Ms Wills said.

"At that time there were some very good chefs in Whanganui and it was a fantastic environment to start out in cooking. Then I went to Sydney, spent a year cooking in Japan and moved to the UK where I specialised more in the French style of food.

"I discovered patisserie was something I loved. I read books by the Roux brothers [Albert and Michel] and then I got a position in their patisserie and supplied bakeries around London. I worked there for 18 months and then I got a job with Gordon Ramsay in his Michelin star restaurant but I didn't particularly like him so I left."

After working in mines in Australia, Ms Wills made the move back to Whanganui and has decided the time is now right to set up her business.

"I think Whanganui is ready for it," she said.

"In this environment at The Burrow we have people coming in who are foodies and are more open to the type of thing I'm offering. I'm using top ingredients, the best chocolate, and I want to offer great quality."

Ms Wills makes a range of French pastries, quiches and viennoiserie. She already has some regular customers and plans to change the range on offer about once a month.

"If there are favourites I'll leave them on, but other items, like the mango and passionfruit mousse, will change with the seasons.

"We are planning to increase the range with more items for lunch. We're looking at paleo and vegetarian options and some salads. It's not a cafe where you can sit down to eat - people can come in and buy food and take it away."

Customers can also order directly from Ms Wills. There is no set range of items so she will discuss customers' preferences when they contact her.

"But they need to give me some lead-in time, not just 24 hours.

"This is something different for Whanganui and of excellent quality. We're going to see what we can make happen."