Hi there, we're Michael and Melissa.
We spent the first two decades our careers in the world of corporate hospitality, Michael travelled internationally as an Executive Head Chef within both the Fairmont and Four Seasons hotel group and I managed publishing and events for a celebrity chef. We loved what we did but with a babe in arms and feeling the pull between very long working days and family life we realized it was time to rethink what we were doing and try to regain those apron strings at home.
And then "da da" in walked an opportunity to help expand Michael’s family business; ‘Back To The Bone’ a raw pet food specialist retailer in Ontario. This coupled our love for animals and food, I grew up on a farm and Michael’s childhood was full of fluffy dogs, a crazy cat and a hamster named Ralph. So how could we possibly say no. We packed in our jobs and packed up are lives in England and headed for a new adventure in Canada- yep we brought some thermals too.
Before long it became evident that you can’t keep a Chef out of the kitchen. Hearing a need from our raw pet food customers for a natural bone broth, Michael took to developing a recipe using all his know how in nutrition and modern cooking techniques to enhance the flavour whilst keeping all the good stuff in.
Word in the dog parks soon spread and we were inundated with orders for our broth. It soon became clear that pet parents were not just using the broth for all its healing benefits but many were using it as a topper for their pet's kibble or natural food diet to entice them to eat.
More and more conversations showed that our four legged friends have quite the discerning palate which is a nice way of saying they are picky! With this in mind, and seeing the very limited availability of whole food solutions to encourage picky pets to eat, Michael got to developing an all natural and nutritious stew to use as a topper or a pour over or even as a complete meal in itself.
The feedback was a barking success and from here the pantry has grown to more stews, soups and supplements all of which use whole foods with absolutely no preservatives and are 100% human grade, should you ever be stuck for dinner one night!