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ORAL HISTORY

Graison Gill

Bellegarde Bakery

Born in South Bay, California, Graison Gill lived and studied in New York City before taking a job on a New Hampshire dairy farm. Weary of cold weather, Gill boarded a Greyhound bus one February, bound for New Orleans. Gill taught himself to bake in the kitchen of his first apartment on Royal Street.

He sold to neighbors and eventually at the Crescent City Farmers’ Market. To develop technique, Graison enrolled in a bread program at the San Francisco Baking Institute. Now he mills his own wheat and runs a commercial bakery in the Broadmoor neighborhood, named after the first commercial bakery in New Orleans.