From banking to baking, Denise O'Callaghan is cooking up a storm in the gluten-free market with her specialised bakery, Delicious
A CAREER MOVE from investment banking to baking may seem like a huge leap to most, but for Cork woman Denise O'Callaghan it was a natural progression.
Along with a long-held passion for baking, O'Callaghan began to increasingly recognise the need for more high-end, gluten-free food products when her own father was diagnosed a coeliac in his 50s.
After working as a credit analyst for 12 years, O'Callaghan eventually took the plunge, leaving her job with a Dublin-based asset management company on a Friday evening to start work in her new kitchen in Cork the following Monday morning.
"I'd always liked the idea of working for myself and even though I loved the world of investment banking, I wanted to use my creative side more and develop my own business strategy and ideas," explains O'Callaghan.
Nearly two years on, O'Callaghan's gluten-free bakery - known simply as Delicious - is gaining increasing recognition for its artisan, gluten-free cakes and breads, even scooping prestigious food awards for some of its recipes.
Originally from Glanmire in Co Cork, O'Callaghan studied for a joint degree in Economics and Italian - the latter due to a long-held love of opera - at University College Cork, eventually leaving the world of academia with a Masters in Economics in the early 1990s.
After a brief stint as a tour guide in Cork, she headed for London where she was hired as a credit analyst with the then Swiss Bank - an experience which she says she thoroughly enjoyed, notwithstanding the early morning starts and 12-hour days.
Five years later, O'Callaghan moved closer to home after she landed a job with the Dublin-based Italian asset management company, Pioneer Investments, which gave her the opportunity to use her "second language" of Italian. During her time in Dublin, O'Callaghan started to cultivate her interest in baking, attending Saturday morning classes at the Dublin Institute of Technology's National Bakery School on Kevin Street.
"I'd go off and make these gorgeous pastries on a Saturday morning and then bring them into my Italian colleagues at work the following Monday morning," recalls O'Callaghan.
"One of the great things about working for an Italian company was that everyone shared a love of food."
As O'Callaghan's love of baking grew, she also began to see first-hand the dietary limitations of coeliac disease through her own father's experiences of having to adhere to a gluten-free diet.
"My mum was always trying out new recipes so that my dad could enjoy as normal a diet as possible, and although there were more gluten-free products on the market, it was still a big change for him and quite restrictive," she explains.
Around this time, O'Callaghan began to explore the idea of setting up her own artisan bakery, with a particular emphasis on gluten-free products. She decided to approach Cork County Council with her idea after she discovered that it was leasing out industrial units to start-up businesses at subsidised rates.
The council was so taken with her business plan that it not only agreed to rent out one of its industrial units to her, but also offered to customise the unit according to the necessary health and safety food specifications.
"It was a huge bonus to me to have this support, and although I had to put a lot of my own money into setting up the business, that initial kick-start and belief in my idea was of enormous benefit," she says.
The central ethos behind O'Callaghan's company - which she claims is the only artisan gluten-free bakery in Ireland - is to produce hand-made, gluten-free cakes and breads free of preservatives or additives, essentially enabling coeliacs and others with a gluten intolerance to eat many of the tasty treats which they would otherwise have been unable to have.
To date, O'Callaghan and her full-time baker and confectioner have mastered the art of making a wide range of gluten-free confectionery - including chocolate éclairs, fruit tarts, Madeira cakes, gateaux, and freshly baked white and brown breads. A more recent development is the production of individually wrapped "on the go" gluten-free cakes which O'Callaghan is now supplying to 55 outlets throughout the Republic.
As well as providing freshly baked products with "a shorter shelf life" to local shops, O'Callaghan is also developing the online side of her business, selling her products via the internet to customers throughout the country.
She has also received the approval of the Irish Coeliac Society and regularly talks to members about their needs and the types of food they miss most.
"Although the business is still just about breaking even, the response has been great and demand has taken off," she says.
So much so that O'Callaghan - who recently scooped the Best Confectionary Product award for her chocolate tiffin slice at the Shop 2008 trade show - has plans to expand her business outside Ireland in the future and has even started learning Chinese to add to her multilingual talents.
"For now though, I'm really enjoying developing the business in Cork and the satisfaction of devising new recipes and product ideas," insists O'Callaghan.
"One of the things that I loved doing as a credit analyst was assessing the companies and watching how their business strategy changed and developed," she explains. "It's really lovely to be at the driving wheel myself this time around.
"And of course nothing - not even the busy world of investment banking - can beat the thrill of cracking a new recipe for the very first time!"