Over the years, Kathy McHugh was a cab driver, a restaurant worker, and even worked in the dietary department at Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital. However, baking was always her passion.
Since everyone seemed to love her baked goods, she started selling her tasty treats at the Orillia Farmers’ Market - and did so for almost three decades. So, it came as no surprise to many when she decided to open the doors of Kathy's Bakery at 149 Colborne St. W.
“I’ve always loved baking, it’s a stress release, I go at my own pace, I make what I want to make, and the customers ... have great compliments for me and tell me how much they love my baking and having a good old-fashioned mom and pop bakery,” she explained.
When McHugh first opened her shop doors, it was construction workers who helped her business prosper.
“When I first started, I lucked out because it happened to be the same time that the construction guys started working on the new addition of the hospital," she explained of the massive project that culminated with the opening of the Community Tower in 2006.
"The guys got me through the first three or four years, and it slowly picked up every year from there,” she said.
These days, the 62-year-old starts baking at 5 a.m. and bakes till 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
“I could put 16 to 18 hours in the shop in a day, go to bed just exhausted, but also be so excited to get back out in the kitchen again for the next morning,” she said.
Over the last few years, McHugh has seen customers make the trip to her bakery from as far north as Sudbury, and as far south as Hamilton, but it’s the locals who keep her bakery going.
“I semi-retired this year by reducing my hours, and I have seniors who live here who are begging me not to retire,” she chuckled.
While her hours have been reduced, McHugh has no plans to completely shut off her ovens anytime soon.
“Every time I try to retire it seems like I just get busier and busier,” she said.
“Once Christmas is over, I shut down until Feb. 1 for by-order only, and then I open up to my regular hours in the middle of March. When I take that break, I’m always itching to get back into the kitchen," she said.
The Park Street Collegiate Institute graduate spends her time away from baking with her Siamese cats and her granddaughter who shares the same passion as her grandmother.
“She has the same gift that I have - she’s an excellent little baker and an excellent little cook, too,” McHugh said.
“She always says she wants to take over the bakery one day, but I tell her she doesn’t want to do that unless you really love it. Nowadays, you want a career.”
McHugh says Kathy’s Bakery just helps her get by.
“It keeps the heat on in the wintertime and the lights on, but I get to do what I love, and I love the customers,” she said. “They are absolutely amazing. They bring me stuff from their gardens, they will bring me Christmas gifts ... they are so caring and dedicated, and a lot of them have been customers for 40 years almost.”
McHugh says all of her customers find the bakery via word of mouth and she sees a new customer almost every day.
Kathy’s Bakery is open Wednesday to Friday from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. She also has a booth on Saturdays at the Orillia Flea Market on Front Street.
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