New Orleans is the home of the poboy. And the muffuletta. Over the years we’ve gotten pretty good at making French bread and muffuletta buns, but we haven’t become known for any other kinds of bread that might be a little more sophisticated. Well, like a lot of other things around here, bread baking is changing too.

Bellegarde Bakery bakes a range of bread, made from the stone-ground flour that they grind themselves. 

The owner of Bellegarde Bakery, Graison Gill, is changing our perception of bread in New Orleans, and in area restaurants. Not only does Bellegarde bake a range of fine breads, they’re so serious about doing it right that they buit their own flour mill and grind their own flour.

Another Lousiana staple is rice.

Artemis Antipass is the founder of Greek Girls Rice Pudding. If you’ve never had it before, rice pudding is to rice, what bread pudding is to bread. Greek Girls is made according to a traditional family recipe from generations back, in Greece, brought to New Orleans by Artemis’s great grandmother.

You can find Greek Girls Rice Pudding on supermarket and specialty food shelves in New Orleans, and Houston. And you can find Bellegarde Bakery bread at stores and in restaurants all across South East Louisiana.

Photos over lunch at Commander’s Palace by Jill Lafleur.