Our Story

The story behind Le Pain Quotidien and Alain Coumont’s passion for food began long before Alain’s first bakery. As a child in Belgium, he spent countless hours perched on a chair, watching his aunt make bread. As a young chef in Brussels, Alain searched for bread that lived up to his childhood ideal. Coming up empty-handed was perhaps the most fortunate stroke, for Alain realized that the only way to satisfy his yearning for the rustic bread of his youth was to recreate it from memory. Passionate about quality, he returned to his roots and opened a bakery where he could knead flour, salt, and water into the rustic loaves of his childhood.  The first Le Pain Quotidien opened on Rue Antoine Dansaert in Brussels, an avant-garde quarter of Belgian fashion in those days. At a local flea market, he found a long table where his guests could sit to eat together; it became Le Pain Quotidien’s first communal table. 

“The idea behind Le Pain Quotidien is simply to make a good daily bread, a handmade bread with a good crust and a firm slice, the kind of bread that makes great tartines. Bread not only to nourish the body but the spirit as well. A bread best shared around a table, to be savored among friends.”

- Alain Coumont