Sweet belief Hard work pays off with plant-based desserts that have even non-vegans asking for seconds By: David Sanderson Posted: 2:00 AM CST Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 Last Modified: 8:54 AM CST Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 Updates

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This article was published 06/12/2025 (322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Having subscribed to a strict, plant-based diet for the past eight years, Suzanne Beauregard is well-versed in the beliefs some people harbour when it comes to vegan desserts.

They’re not particularly flavourful. They lack texture. There isn’t a lot of choice available.

To get past those assumptions, whenever the founder of the Beauregard Experience, a three-year-old enterprise specializing in gluten-free vegan treats, divvies out samples to parties unfamiliar with her goodies, she initially keeps their true origins to herself.

“The first thing I do, of course, is ask if they have any allergies or restrictions and if they say no, I invite them to give my desserts a try,” says Beauregard, a married mother of two daughters, ages 16 and 19.

“Later, when I let them know everything’s gluten-free and dairy-free, they usually gasp in amazement or say I must have made a mistake. To me, it’s always a compliment when a person comments they can’t tell the difference between mine and so-called normal desserts.”

Eight years ago, Beauregard, a teacher-librarian with the Pembina Trails School Division, and her husband Ken Reid, an Air Canada pilot, took their daughters to an all-inclusive Mexican resort for a winter getaway. People tend to overindulge in those situations, Beauregard says, so when their youngest developed a severe stomach ailment on the second day of their trip, she and her husband chalked it up to too much time spent in the buffet line. Except when she was still feeling under the weather a few days later, they began to question the real cause.

Not long before their vacation, one of her colleagues had been diagnosed with celiac disease, which the two of them had discussed at length, Beauregard says, seated in a coffee shop 10 minutes from her Linden Woods home. Curious, she typed celiac disease into her phone while taking a break by the resort’s pool, only to exclaim to Ken that all the listed symptoms matched what their daughter was experiencing.

“We ended up taking her off gluten when we got back to Winnipeg but, being a kid, she would sneak the odd Goldfish cracker, resulting in an immediate reaction. That’s when we knew (gluten) was definitely the culprit.”

In support of their daughter, Beauregard, already a vegetarian, made the decision to eliminate gluten and dairy from her own diet. To her surprise, digestive issues she’d been dealing with — ones she always attributed to working full-time while maintaining a busy household — cleared up practically overnight, convincing her their then-eight-year-old’s condition was likely hereditary.

Beauregard, who fell in love with cooking while studying home economics at Golden Gate Middle School in St. James, was already familiar with how exclusionary adhering to a specific diet could be. Often, students would bring cupcakes to class to celebrate special occasions, and there always seemed to be at least one child who couldn’t partake. With that in mind, she began experimenting with vegan desserts, ones her daughter could enjoy versus having to mutter, “None for me, thanks,” when she attended birthday parties and whatnot.

“There was a lot of experimentation early on and I shudder to think how much money we spent buying all these different ingredients, taking a bite of the finished products and tossing the lot into the garbage, going ‘eww,’” she says. “After a while, though, it all started to come together, and we began bringing my desserts to gatherings with friends and family, none of whom could tell they didn’t contain dairy or gluten.”

Among the people in their social circle was someone involved with the James Avenue Pumphouse, an Exchange District eatery that opened in a former firefighting pumping station in the autumn of 2021. He and his associates were intent on adding vegan selections to their menu, and he asked Beauregard if she would prepare two of her “greatest hits” for them — a ginger-forward cookie named the Stella for her mom, and a chocolate brownie, the Georges, named after her dad.

“He literally had to ask three times, only because I thought he must be joking, given I had no food-industry experience whatsoever,” Beauregard says.

Mark Merano, executive chef at James Avenue Pumphouse, says he had “zero” experience with vegan- and dairy-free desserts until he met Beauregard. He recalls the first time he tried her chocolate brownie, describing the moment as an “eye-opener.”

“It hit all the right notes, there was no doubt about it. Next was the peanut-butter pie. I mean, if you haven’t tried it, do yourself a favour,” Merano says.

Although he spends the majority of his time in the kitchen, where it’s hard to gauge diners’ reactions, Merano is certain people with dietary restrictions aren’t the only ones ordering Beauregard’s fare.

“We do offer desserts like cheesecake and carrot cake that are done with dairy, but hers are right up there, in terms of sales,” he reports. “It seems like we’re always waiting for the next delivery, which is a great sign on our end.”

In September 2022, Beauregard was invited to be a vendor at a vegan market being staged at the University of Winnipeg. Naturally, she’d need a name for her booth. After some consternation, she settled on the Beauregard Experience, an expression her daughters came up with years earlier to describe their mother’s over-the-top hospitality — lavish meals, creative mocktails — whenever they had friends over.

“It was truly the best gluten-free dessert I’d ever had. After that first pie – which I ate entirely by myself – I’ve eaten many more.”

The market was a success and within weeks Beauregard, who bakes in a commercial kitchen, was up to her ears in orders from people requesting her desserts either for themselves or members of their family. Throw in the fact she was a full-time teacher who was busily ferrying her daughters, both competitive dancers, across the city a few nights a week, and it was all she could do to keep up with demand, she says.

One evening during a family gathering, the youngest of her two brothers remarked how much simpler things would be if her desserts were available in retail stores. She discussed the idea with her husband, who agreed it was worth a shot. After five months of product development, which included shipping samples to Quebec to be tested for gluten (the industry standard is 20 parts per million; hers came in at eight parts per million), she went about things the old-fashioned way, by popping in on store owners to ask if they wanted to try her peanut-butter pie, the dessert she’d chosen to focus on exclusively, as it arrives frozen and is shelf-stable.

G.J. Andrews on Academy Road was the first shop to sign on. Next came Calabria Market on Scurfield Boulevard, followed by De Luca’s. Today, two sizes of her peanut-butter pie, prepared with coconut whipped topping, dairy-free cream cheese and vegan margarine, are in almost a dozen locations, including Main Bread and Butter in Steinbach.

Hayley Williams and her husband Trevor are the owners of the No Frills outlet at 1795 Henderson Hwy. Williams, who lives with celiac disease, says it was a game-changer when she tried Beauregard’s peanut-butter pie for the first time 18 months ago, after noticing it was available at Santa Ana Pizzeria on St. Mary’s Road.

“It was truly the best gluten-free dessert I’d ever had. After that first pie — which I ate entirely by myself — I’ve eaten many more,” Williams says with a chuckle.

Williams and her husband have been carrying Beauregard’s desserts — her imperial cookie is one of their faves — for close to a year. Considering the Beauregard Experience is a small, local biz, it’s a win-win, Williams says.

“I also know that celiac-safe foods and vegan foods are normally more pricey, so we thought we’d offer it at our location for a lower price,” she says. “We sell lots and intend to keep the price lower than normal to suit our dietary community.”

On Dec. 13, Beauregard will be a registered vendor at Herbivore Haven, a holiday-themed market at Windsor Park United Church, located at 1062 Autumnwood Dr. There she will have a swath of desserts available for purchase, including a festive gingerbread cake, topped with a salted-caramel drizzle and gingersnap crumble. And in January she’ll attend Ag Days in Brandon, with an eye toward introducing her line to exhibitors and visitors who will be in attendance from across North America.

By the way, if you ever spot a married couple hovering in the frozen-food aisle at Red River Co-op, another chain that stocks her treats, for what seems like an inordinate period, that might just be Beauregard and her husband.

“Yes, Ken and I lurk all the time. I still fully have imposter syndrome,” she says. “Googling your product and seeing it come up in a place like Vita Health is still like having an out-of-body experience.”

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