Betsy Gonzalez
Osono Bread | Atlanta
April 2023
In Betsy Gonzalez’s house growing up, there was one constant through line across every meal and special occasion: bread. She initially saw bread as more of a utility than a career path, it was home economics class in the culinary program at Marietta’s Sprayberry High School that transformed Gonzalez’s steadily growing hobby for baking and cooking into a passion. While at Georgia State University at 19, she picked up various front of house jobs to help pay the bills, but wouldn’t work in a proper bakery until she was hired by Rising Stars alum Sarah O’Brien of Little Tart in 2015. Though she started in the front of the house, she was moved to the bakery after about a year. After another year of building a solid pastry foundation, Gonzalez felt a calling to dive deeper into baking, and started on her bread journey, falling in love with both the scientific aspects of bread making and the natural, intuitive process.
In 2018, Gonzalez embarked on a six-month baking pilgrimage to Europe, starting in Ireland, then on to Bread by Bike in London. Then, Gonzalez worked with Paul Stoykovich of Yellow Bakery in Barcelona, where she started prepping couches, and after two months, was shaping and baking. After a few more stops, including Ille Brød in Oslo and Egt. in Belgium, Gonzalez returned to Atlanta in the summer of 2018. She began Osono Bread as a pop-up with only two cast iron double cookers. Gonzalez started off selling 40 loaves a week to her family and friends, which then snowballed into a bread subscription service, and eventually to a weekly farmstand and farmers market residencies. Named after the Studio Ghibli film Kiki’s Delivery Service, Osono Bread now operates out of Grant Park Farmers Market, offering several different types of donuts and breads that highlight local grains and global techniques.
