We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathaniel Reid a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nathaniel, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe that being successful takes hard work, perseverance, and dedication more than anything. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t continue to learn and really put in the work, you’ll never reach your full potential. No matter how established you are, you should always be a willing student of your craft- keeping your mind open and continuing to experiment, change, and improve, always striving for perfection. For example, we have been tinkering with our croissant recipes, making minute changes to a number of different variables ever since we opened. We’ve changed our recipe over twenty times, each time making it just a little bit better. Over the past few years, we’ve been recognized for our croissants by Yelp, being voted the 6th best spot in the U.S. and Canada in 2023 and 2nd best in 2024. This sort of improvement is exactly what we’re aiming for, and it makes all that hard work worthwhile.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with a Grand Diploma in Culinary and Pastry Arts, Chef Reid directed top pastry kitchens around the world such as Michelin 3-star restaurant, Joël Robuchon, in Las Vegas and the AAA Five Diamond St. Regis hotel in Dana Point, California. Specializing in European contemporary and traditional baked goods, his dedication to the pastry craft has resulted in awards such as Dessert Professional Magazine’s Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America, Pastry Chef of the Year at the U.S. Pastry Competition, and a two-time James Beard Foundation Semifinalist for Outstanding Baker. He later accomplished his longtime dream of opening his own pastry shop in Kirkwood, Missouri. Nathaniel Reid Bakery offers a carefully curated menu of pastries, bakeries, savory foods and confections that have earned a number of accolades since opening, including Top 100 Sandwiches in America by Food Network and 9th Best Bakery in the U.S. by Yelp.com.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The core values I hold for my business are providing memorable customer service, believing in honesty and trust between our team and our customers, always striving for perfection in consistency and quality, and doing business in a professional and productive manner. I think that staying true to these values over the six years we’ve been open is what helped us stand out in the market and build our reputation. Rather than going for anything flashy, we have a relatively simple business model, letting our product and service speak for itself.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There are a lot of lessons I’ve had to unlearn. I studied cooking in France, working almost exclusively for French chefs. In that culture, you are taught how to do things “the way they have always been done.” It’s very classical and practical, which is a great way to learn and master the techniques of cooking and baking, but it also greatly limits open mindedness and creativity. As I continued to grow and learn, I’ve been forced to rethink a lot of the things I was doing, asking myself *why* things were done that way, and is there a way it could be better? A way to make it more efficient, or higher quality? This way of thinking really enlightened me, helping me to truly understand the ingredients and techniques I was using and mold them to fit my needs and style of baking and pastry.

Contact Info:

• Website: nrbakery.com
• Instagram: @nathanielreidbakery
• Facebook: Nathaniel Reid Bakery
• Twitter: @nathanielreid
• Yelp: Nathaniel Reid Bakery

Image Credits
all photos of food items are by Erik Kellar, behind the scenes photos are by Spencer Pernikoff, Chef Reid’s headshot is by Darin Hartlieb