Marcelle's Kitchen: Scugog Community Spotlight

Scugog’s Community Spotlight this week is Marcelle’s Kitchen, a bakery that lives up to the word “best” in its tagline: it sits on Scugog Island in the Township of Scugog, at Redman’s Crossroads on Island Road, a short drive from Port Perry across the water. It is one of the few bakeries in the region where every single item in the case is gluten-free, which makes it something of a destination for families who cook around a celiac diagnosis.

The bakery exists because of a daughter. Owner John Redman started baking after his oldest daughter Amanda was diagnosed with celiac disease following years of illness, and he was done settling for the poor-tasting gluten-free options on supermarket shelves. He learned to bake from his two grandmothers, and the shop carries the name of one of them: Marcelle.

Today the shelves hold fresh loaves, muffins, cookies, cakes and classic Ontario butter tarts, alongside gluten-free perogies, lasagna, ravioli and sirloin pies, plus dry baking mixes for home cooks. Because the kitchen is 100 percent dedicated to gluten-free, there is no shared equipment and no cross-contamination to worry about, which is exactly what a household managing celiac disease needs. Custom orders are welcome, and the bakery ships within Ontario.

The crossroads building on Island Road sits on ground the Redman family has owned and farmed since 1854, originally as dairy farmers, so this bakery is rooted in the island’s farming character. The customer who will love it is anyone who has been let down by bland gluten-free bread one time too many: local families, weekend visitors crossing onto Scugog Island, and people who simply want a really good butter tart whether or not they avoid gluten.

Why Marcelle’s Kitchen stands out in Scugog

Marcelle’s stands out for three reasons. It is fully dedicated rather than a regular bakery with a gluten-free corner, so it is safe for people with celiac disease. It makes the savoury foods people actually miss, from perogies to pies, not just pastries. And it is genuinely local: a family business on farmland that has been in the same family for generations, a short drive from downtown Port Perry. For anyone weighing a move to the area, a bakery like this is a small piece of everyday quality of life, and it belongs to the wider township we cover in our Scugog community guide, part of the same lakeside rhythm we wrote about in our guide to lakeside living around Port Perry.