Gary Rhodes, who recently announced his split from Sodhexo, is setting up a pâtisserie supply business with former chef-pâtissier Martin Dockett. The company will specialise in pâtisserie desserts, ice-creams, sorbets and panna cotta.
The company, named Rhokett, launches today and is targeting UK caterers working in blue-chip companies as well as top-end hotels.
Dockett previously set up Le Glacerie, which made and supplied similar pâtisserie products, but the company went into administration last year.
"Martin has got a great reputation as a pastry chef, and I was so impressed with the quality of product he was producing at Le Glacerie that I very much wanted to be a part of his new company," said Rhodes.
Rhodes has pumped a "substantial amount" - rumoured to be more than £200,000 - into the venture, which is based in Cranbrook, Kent. "I'm a quiet shareholder at the moment," he commented, but he added that he would be taking a more active role in product development later in the year.
Rhokett has already secured British Airways as a customer through its contracter Gate Gourmet.
Speculation is still rife in the industry about whether Gary Rhodes will team up with London's Le Méridien Cumberland hotel (
Caterer, 23 January, page 6).
* Chef-restaurateur Paul Heathcote is looking for a second site in North-west England in which to expand his recently launched pizzeria and grill restaurant, the Olive Press. The pizzeria, launched last October, replaced the café-bar at his Preston outlet of Simply Heathcote's. Heathcote has confirmed he has been looking at possible locations in Manchester and Liverpool.