Ollio Patisserie Will Soon Be A Culinary Destination In The Colony

After just 10 minutes of chatting with chef Golda Sumpon, the founder and executive chef of Ollio Patisserie in The Colony, we're not sure she ever sleeps.

Sumpon started Ollio Patisserie with a booth in the Frisco Fresh Market in 2019. The Sri Lankan-born Sumpon opened the brick-and-mortar location of Ollio Patisserie two weeks ago and admits to almost living at the bakery since, the kitchen serving as her home away from home.

This level of dedication is nothing new, as Sumpon has been busy for most her adult life. Prior to starting Ollio, she worked as an information technology executive, first for Hewlett-Packard, then Dun & Bradstreet, for over two decades. Her career was full of long hours supporting projects across the globe. And while Sumpon excelled at her job in IT, it wasn't her passion.

"Literally, you're tethered to your job," Sumpon says. However, her travels across Europe exposed her to the style of bakeries that Ollio is modeled after.

Fascinated with the idea of becoming a chef, Sumpon started taking night classes at Collin College in Frisco in between her busy day job that often had her traveling and away from her husband and three children.

"I started by saying, 'Well, I'll try one class, or maybe I could cater.' And before I knew it, I was registered for the whole kit of classes, and I walked away from IT," Sumpon recalls. "This is my passion, and I love it."

While the pandemic delayed their opening plans, Ollio Patisserie has already drawn customers who seek out Sumpon's assortment of macarons, croissants, cookies and pastries, for good reason. Under Sumpon's vision, everything at Ollio is made with the highest quality ingredients, from the almond flour that goes into every macaron to the Italian pistachio paste that's a traditional macaron flavor or the dark chocolate that fills one of the six different styles of the croissant.

"I don't cut corners. I saw the standards of bakeries when I was in Europe, and I wanted to bring that quality here," she says.

That focus on quality was evident in everything we tried from Ollio. Faced with an array of choices among the croissants and macarons and cookies, we caved to our temptations and ordered some of everything. We were intrigued by two cookie flavors, the Kitchen Sink (coconut, oatmeal, toasted pecans and chocolate chunks) and the Blueberry and Cream ($1.50 each). The Kitchen Sink tastes just as decadent as you imagined, but the tart blueberries with white chocolate chunks in our other cookie shouldn't be overlooked either.

We also tried spinach and feta croissant ($3.50), which adds a savory twist to the buttery and flaky croissant layers. And of course, a five-pack of Indulgence macarons ($11) gave us a way to try multiple flavors like espresso, red velvet and salted caramel. All macarons are made under Sumpon's hand, and were exquisitely executed with perfectly light and airy shells holding just the right amount of filling.

We also snuck a peek at a pair of new macaron flavors that Ollio will have next week — a watermelon macaron (complete with green and pink shells) and a mango macaron with an incredible tie-dye orange hue. Sumpon admits her love of experimenting with new flavors in her spare time, which led us to wonder aloud how much of that spare time she has left.

Sumpon responded with a smile and a laugh, but her new career comes with the full support of her family. On the day of our visit, her husband and son were manning the booth that remains open at the Frisco Fresh Market, while her daughters Janessa and Annalise, worked alongside their mom at the storefront. Ollio Patisserie is truly a family affair.

Ollio Patisserie's name comes from an Italian word meaning "a dish of many ingredients," which seems to match Sumpon's background to the letter. Judging by the number of customers who walked through the doors on our recent visit, and we can't imagine much more time passes before Ollio Patisserie is a full-on culinary destination in The Colony.

Ollio Patisserie, 7552 Main Street (The Colony). Open Tuesday - Saturday, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.