When it comes to baked goods in St. Louis, few are able to measure up to the nationally acclaimed Nathaniel Reid Bakery. Named for its founder, the bakery opened its doors in 2016 with the mission statement of quality and attentive hospitality. Since then, the bakery and its team have gone on to win several awards, including being a semifinalist in the 2025 James Beard Foundation’s selection for Outstanding Bakery.
And while the bakery has its own pedigree, head chef Nathaniel Reid holds quite the interesting history himself. Growing up in Ellington, Missouri, one of Reid’s first interests in life was not actually in the culinary arts. Instead, he found a fascination in geology. “I grew up near Sweetwater Mine in Ellington,” Reid said. “You saw rocks and minerals and people bringing them home from the mines.”
Combined with reading his older sister’s textbooks, a fascination in the natural world was sparked in Reid. It was because of this interest that, when Reid made his way to Mizzou, he initially studied biology, with an emphasis in herpetology, the study of amphibians. However, this path to frogs, newts and toads would not last for long.
One night, while working as a line cook to pay for expenses, the pastry chef on staff dropped out due to illness, leaving an opening for the position. At that moment, cook Reid felt a calling to the position. “It just seemed innate,” Reid stated. “It was like a moth to a flame kind of feeling.” The burgeoning pastry chef found a new home in patisserie.
In order to better prepare himself for this turn in life, Reid switched majors to what is now known as the Hospitality major at Mizzou – with the final capstone itself being to open an actual restaurant. “I believe we opened up a Brazilian steakhouse, which isn’t quite what I am doing now, but it’s a restaurant,” Reid said.
Following his time at Mizzou, Reid was accepted into Le Cordon Bleu, a French culinary school. At first, Reid was set to study in the institution’s London location, but then a near last-minute decision ended up landing him at the main headquarters in Paris, France.
“I started thinking about it … [Le Cordon Bleu Paris] seemed to have a higher level of teaching and more history,” Reid said. “We learn French cooking, you know?”
Despite not being fluent in the language, Reid was still able to make his way through this next stage of education. According to the chef, his background in chemistry came in assistance on more than one occasion. By the time his tenure in the French school was over, Reid came out the other side much more experienced and ready to take on the world. There was just one problem: money.
“I didn’t have any money when I moved there, and I was definitely out of money by the time school was done,” Reid stated. “So, I had to run and get back home.”
Thankfully, he was able to find work relatively quickly in Las Vegas at the Ritz-Carlton. While there, he worked under chef Patrice Caillot, who had “just won [a] world pastry championship.” Even to this day, he maintains a good relationship with his mentor, as he speaks to him “every couple of months,” according to Reid.
Despite having had no plans to even visit Las Vegas when he was younger, Reid lived in the city for the next four years. Following this period of his life, and after learning what he could from chef Caillot, Reid set off once more into the great unknown. His next destination was southern California, where he lived and worked for another four years. Following that, he moved to southern Florida for three years.
According to Reid, Las Vegas turned out to be one of his favorite places that he lived. “The whole town is based off of my passion, which is hospitality and food,” Reid said.
Finally, Reid settled in St. Louis after his years of globe-trotting, some of which were spent running Michelin-starred restaurants. But, this time, it would be his name on the business. With his own patisserie, it was time for Reid to bring together all of his experiences and knowledge in chemistry, baking, cooking and hospitality under one roof.
“A chef is not just the best cook,” Reid said, “It’s a quarter of their job … they’re a quarter business man, a manager … all these different things that go into it.”
Over the course of close to a decade, Nathaniel Reid Bakery continued to win accolades and the adoration of the team’s regular customers. For Reid himself, one of the most important awards the bakery has earned was being a James Beard semifinalist.
“It’s about the bakery,” Reid said, “I’ve created something all these people have poured into and made something as a culture and a business. It just felt even more exciting than before and it felt like something to rejoice.”
But even with this new chapter in Reid’s life, he still is able to find time for one of his original passions: geology. According to Reid, he likes to collect mineral formations and other rocks from around the state of Missouri, with his favorite piece of the bunch coming from southwest Missouri.
“[It’s] actually from the Joplin area,” Reid said, “It’s just an interesting twin calcite that’s very rare.”
While some might see this as a simple hobby, excellence in simplicity seems to be the name of the game for the Nathaniel Reid Bakery. For Reid and his team, the business is designed around enjoying the music of the process and the atmosphere of the bakery.
“You’re walking into their home, that’s what we’re trying to achieve here,” Reid said. “I think that’s probably the thing I’m most proud of as a chef.”
