Phillippa Grogan - Class Of 1981
TURNED A PASSION FOR COOKING AND BAKING INTO A BRAND EMBRACED BY THE COMMUNITY
Phillippa Grogan has numerous fond memories of her education at Loreto Toorak, particularly Home Economics classes in Year 8, and the chocolate eclairs and coffee scrolls available for sale in the tuck shop. Her art classes in Year 12 in ‘the Stables’ were a definite highlight.
After graduating Year 12, Phillippa studied an Arts degree at Melbourne University, following which she moved to Paris to study French for three months. She continued living in Paris for another three months before moving across The Channel where she worked in London for nine years. Her roles included working at Clarke’s restaurant in Kensington and cooking on a yacht for eight days as it sailed between Brighton (United Kingdom) and Cadiz (Spain).
Upon her return home to Melbourne, Phillippa opened Phillippa’s Bakery in 1994, a leading premium wholesale and retail bakery that uses natural ingredients to create quality products. Amongst the offerings are fresh breads, pastries, sweet treats, home meals and pantry items. The team at Phillippa’s Bakery work hard around each holiday season and, at the time of writing, were busy preparing Christmas Hampers and delicious puddings, cakes and mince pies.
Phillippa’s career has been hugely successful, and it is therefore hard to narrow down particular highlights. She does, however, regard catering on the Isle of Sark for the Chairman of Lloyd’s Insurance and cooking in Clarence House for the Queen Mother as absolute pinnacle moments. She has appeared on MasterChef and wrote a cookbook with Richard Cornish. Mostly, though, Phillippa is deeply proud of developing a brand embraced and loved by the wider Melbourne community for more than 27 years.
For a woman so busy, it is crucial to have down time, and for Phillippa those spare moments are spent cycling, reading, watching movies, entertaining, and pottery.
Phillippa credits her years at Loreto Toorak with a sound academic success and instilling the confidence to pursue her career. The friendships made while here are long-lasting; each woman very much a part of her life and together they enjoy holidays, travel, dine and play tennis.
<< Back to Stories
