While cooking some 30 years ago and 600 miles south in Virginia, Chef Michael Gagné wanted to add a biscuit to his restaurant's nightly bread basket. His recipe evolved from a traditional southern lard-based "beaten" biscuit to a "dropped" biscuit, neither achieving the desired quality. Chef Gagné thought the problem might be the ingredients and changed the lard to cream cheese and butter, arriving at the flavor he wanted, but not the texture. He tried folding the dough, taking the lessons learned from the French croissant and puff pastry production and achieved the fluffiest, most scrumptious biscuit in the world.

The first biscuits to be sold from Chef Gagné's Robinhood Free Meetinghouse restaurant in Maine were a baker's dozen, wrapped in butcher paper. The only clients in the biscuits' early days were neighbors out walking their dogs and, of course, the restaurant's patrons. As interest grew, the Meetinghouse staff developed packaging and and gained regional distribution.

As the biscuits began to hit shelves, the "Biscuiteers" hit the road and made deliveries all over Maine to Bed and Breakfasts and small purveyors. The biscuits became very popular along the coast, and Chef Gagné saw an emerging business opportunity. Maine summer time visitors started asking their local markets back home for the biscuits. Simultaneously, the biscuits caught the eye of gourmet catalog and on line retailers and the Gagné Biscuiteers began shipping biscuits nationwide. Orders grew from cases to pallets.

After the success of his Cream Cheese Biscuit recipe, Chef Gagné created his savory Five Herb Parmesan Cream Cheese Biscuit and sweet Cream Cheese Cinnamon Roll. Winning the 2006 gold award at the NASFT Fancy Food Show in New York propelled the humble biscuit onto the national map.

In the fall of 2008, Gagné Foods introduced 3 new flavors - Peach Amaretto Turnovers, Brown Sugar Pecan Sticky Buns and Cream Cheese Mini Biscuits

View our Photo Gallery of "Biscuiteers" and the first days.

The Robinhood Free Meetinghouse

The five-star Robinhood Free Meetinghouse, launched in 1994 by renowned Chef Michael Gagné, is the very definition of New England dining at its finest.

The nationally acclaimed Georgetown, Maine restaurant, housed in a meticulously restored 1855 post-and-beam church, has earned high marks both for its dynamic menu options and seamless service from such regionally and nationally prominent outlets as The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Offshore Magazine, The Boston Globe and The Portland Press Herald.

In addition to serving full dining rooms during its dinner service, the Meetinghouse also has become well-known among locals and visitors to Maine for its festive Seasonal Wine Dinners, as well as for its popular Theme Nights, during which guests enjoy flavor-filled, hand-crafted dishes which span cuisines ranging from Cajun, Italian and Szechuan to Caribbean, Thai and German.

For more information about the restaurant as well as menus and event schedules and to learn more about acclaimed Chef Michael Gagné please visit: www.robinhood-meetinghouse.com