William Colley, a born and raised Eastern Townships entrepreneur, is looking to make his mark in the region by providing Townshippers’ with a unique and diverse culinary experience. 

As chef and owner of the popular La Fermette Fumée: BBQ & Grill Cuisine Tex-Mex in Cowansville, Colley is looking to branch out with a new line of hot sauces called Piments Fort des Cantons, a ready-to-go meal company La Fermette Express, and an open concept reception hall known as La Mangeoire. 

Running his own catering company since 2009, Colley wants to use his culinary skills to carve out a unique space for himself in the entrepreneurial landscape of Brome-Missisquoi. 

“I had been renting this locale in Cowansville where we are still presently now. I was also running a business in Montreal on T.V. and film sets. I had these custom kitchen trailers and we’d take up contracts throughout Montreal and Quebec,” explained Colley. “I was running my catering business and that business through the locale in Cowansville and I had a year that kind of slowed down.”

Colley decided to use his spare time to look into opening a take-out counter. 

“We wanted to do a roadside BBQ stand and that was inspired a little bit by my brother, whose always been very much into smoking,” said Colley. “After the first year we did the take out BBQ roadside stand, we got such a huge response from the community and people that were coming that I decided the year after to build a restaurant.” 

La Fermette Fumée officially opened its doors in 2019 and Colley is continuing to build on the momentum by providing people with a taste of something different. 

One of the projects on the books is his own line of hot sauces Piments Fort des Cantons. Colley built a four-season green house at his home in Dunham a few years back after being introduced to hot peppers from the likes of Trinidad and Asia.

“I never experienced, in all my time of being in the kitchen, that flavour. It’s very, very spicy, but the underlying tones of the floral and citrus tones are just spectacular. I quickly became addicted to that flavour,” said Colley. 

Colley is also launching a ready-to-eat company La Fermette Express on Dec. 4 that will be open on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. New menus will come out every week. 

“We’re using a little bit of stuff from the restaurant and we’re also throwing in a bunch of different stuff from the catering companies in the menus, so that will be interesting,” said Colley. 

We’ve also got the receptions halls that are construction as we speak, said Colley, that’s called La Mangeoire.

“These are going to be reception halls that have a little bit of culinary focus on them. We’re going to have a food truck that is currently parked in the back, so people will have access to that. We’re going to have the options of outdoor grilling and tasting kiosks. It’s going to be an open concept reception hall with a capacity of 250 people,” he said. 

He noted that his intention with his projects is to create a “culinary destination” in the region. 

“Something with a good variety in types of cuisine. That was one of the big adjustments when I moved back here from the city was the lack of diversity. That was one of the big things I wanted to bring out here with the BBQ that we are doing, the Tex-Mex we are doing, and our catering service that offers a lot of Asian, Indian, and European options,” said Colley. 

Listen to the full interview below: