New West residents can now enjoy sweet treats created by a pastry chef who has catered events attended by the likes of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U2.
Pastry chef Kim Collishaw and partner John McMahon are thrilled to be opening YUM Gourmet Donuts in Sapperton.
“I think our donuts are a little different than everybody else’s. I think they’re a little fancier. They’re not just dipped with a bit of stuff on them. There’s a lot more work that goes into them,” said Collishaw. “I am all about flavour profiles.”
While working at Telus, Collishaw baked up all kinds of treats for her coworkers, who urged her to attend culinary school because her baked goods were so delicious. Collishaw took their advice and attended Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts.
For 17 years, Collishaw was a pastry chef at Culinary Capers Catering – creating delicious pastries for events attended by the likes of U2 and Clinton. When COVID hit and the catering company closed for good, Collishaw began pondering a business of her own.
Collishaw began baking brioche donuts and testing out different flavours. As word spread about the gourmet donuts, Collishaw and McMahon began hunting for a storefront where they could operate YUM Gourmet Donuts.
A store is born
Seven months after securing a space at 468 East Columbia St., Collishaw and McMahon drew huge crowds when opened on Saturday, March 19. It will be open Thursday to Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving up two vegan options, apple fritters and an assortment of artisan donuts each week.
“There is going to be up to 14 flavours of donuts every week,” Collishaw said. “We’ll change our flavours weekly. There might be some flavours we do every week – obviously the fritters. And there are certain flavours that people love, so we have to make sure we have those.”
Carrot cake, bacon maple, raspberry lime and strawberry shortcake are among the flavours that will be featured at any given time.
“People like the citrusy ones, like the key lime or lemon meringue, so we will always make sure something like that is on the menu,” Collishaw said. “People like the fruity ones.”
As a trained pastry chef, Collishaw considers the flavor profile when concocting her recipes – considering texture and flavour, so people experience the “perfect bite” when they taste a YUM donut.
Collishaw is always coming up with new recipes, sometimes jotting down ideas in the middle of the night. And that’s exactly when she’ll hit the kitchen once YUM Gourmet Donuts is up and running – preparing topping, fillings and dough for about 1,000 donuts a day.
“Once they’re gone, we’re sold out,” she said. “We can’t just whip up another batch to do.”
YUM’s special brioche dough takes 24 hours to prepare.
“It’s a process,” Collishaw said. “The dough takes a long time to make because it’s not just instant stuff. There are four rises involved with this dough. It develops the flavour. There’s a lot of butter, so the butter flavour comes out.”
YUM also creates large birthday cake donuts that serve 10, but they must be ordered 48 hours in advance.
McMahon, who was born and raised in New West, is excited to open the donut shop in his hometown. While he’ll be handling the administrative side of things, he can’t say enough about his partner’s culinary creations.
“I think they are amazing,” he said. “I love donuts. I have never tasted anything like them – seriously. They are the best. I guess I am a little biased, but it’s the truth.”
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