FOR more than 32 years David Dillion has been making patties out of his home bakery in Carron Hall, St Mary, that keep customers coming back.

The self-taught baker can be seen travelling in his white Starlet motor car — from Highgate to Richmond — with the scent of beef and chicken patties wafting from the vehicle just waiting to be devoured, horn tooting amid shouts of “hot patty”.

Dillion, the “hotty hotty” patty man, grew up in a household of farmers, but he was always very curious whenever his mother and aunts would bake.

“I would watch until I was able to help. I loved it,” Dillion told the Jamaica Observer.

When he got older, he started working at the then-famous St Mary bakery, Terry Gillette Bakery, where he made patties. Reportedly the bakery’s clientèle grew.

“I didn’t stay there long. I went to work with Mrs Gillette instead,” Dillion said, adding that he stayed with her for a year.

However, since his patty-making skill was in high demand, Dillion took a leap of fate and started baking his own products out of his home. The business grew, and the self-taught baker established a bakery and employed more than six people to help with the daily patty production.

But when a bigger entity came into town, things slowed for Dillion.

“I sent home the staff and closed the bakery, and went back into my farm,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Though he was doing well on his farm in the cool hills of Carron Hall, his customers begged for him to return with his patties, so he decided to take up his apron again.

And although his operation has been significantly scaled down, with him employing only two other persons to work with him, his team produces an average 250 patties per day.

“When I go out, I do not come back with any. People buy my patty [because] once they have one, they want another, it must be money they don’t have,” a proud Dillion boasted.

But why are his patties in such high demand?

“I use local beef, and my cost is more affordable,” Dillion said. “Business has been good, [I] can’t complain, I just need to meet my clients’ demand.”