Kaitlin Guerin
Lagniappe Baking | New Orleans
SEPTEMBER 2022
After growing up in New Orleans, Kaitlin Guerin moved to the Bay Area to follow her passion for modern dance. But by 2018, Guerin needed a change. She had always loved sweets and had a fascination for pastry work, so she dropped everything and enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone, California campus. While at the CIA, Guerin took a pastry externship in Copenhagen at Noma’s more casual sister concept, Restaurant 108, where she was able to experiment with foraging and lacto-fermentation. In 2019, she returned to San Francisco to work under Rising Stars alums Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski as a pastry assistant for State Bird Provisions and The Progress.
When a family crisis called Guerin back to New Orleans in January of 2020, she thought she’d only be moving home for a few months. But as the COVID-19 pandemic developed, she settled in and began stress-baking for friends and family. Seeing an opportunity to turn idle time into a business, she founded Lagniappe Baking, selling boxes of exquisitely crafted pastries out of her windowsill. Items like her Lagniappe Strawberry Cake with lemon curd, Italian buttercream, and fresh strawberries, feature fun, locally-inspired flavor combinations, giving customers “a little something extra” with every bite. Guerin served as the pastry chef for Melissa Martin’s Mosquito Supper Club, which was instrumental in reacquainting herself with what the local agriculture has to offer. Guerin is also a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier New Orleans chapter and in 2021, she was recognized as one of Louisiana Cookin’ magazine’s “Chefs to Watch.”
