NOLA’s Acclaimed Bellegarde Bakery Becomes Worker-Owned As Founder Departs | Eater New Orleans

"I watched Bellegarde Bakery grow from a 2013 wholesale operation into a beloved, ubiquitous New Orleans brand after its expansion into a retail bakery; its founder, Graison Gill, became a James Beard Award finalist for Outstanding Baker in 2020. Known for earnest Old World bread making and an obsessive approach to milling—sourcing wheat from Oklahoma and producing up to 2,000 pounds of flour per week in-house—the bakery closed twice during the pandemic, moments when Gill issued forceful, emotional statements about the city's economic pressures on local workers. Recently Gill sold the business to an initial group of five employees who will run it as a cooperative, with additional staff eligible to become owners after a year, a shift Gill says will retain the bakery’s energy, integrity, and ingredients even as he pursues a similar “fairy-tale” bakery project in London." - Clair Lorell