Twenty-seven-year old Madeline Rubidoux wants to make bread for all Las Vegans.
The Vegas native studied in Switzerland, got her certification in European pastries in chocolates and was working as a baker in London when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Rubidoux returned to Las Vegas and made a full recovery before taking a job at a local marijuana company. There, she learned about wellness as a business and lifestyle.
“I got into a more conscious way of baking and being more mindful because it was in the medical field,” Rubidoux says. “Because I was transitioning out of ovarian cancer at 26 years old, I was like, I should probably start thinking about what I’m putting in my body.”
In November 2016, she left the medical industry and launched Bread for the People with one goal in mind: to provide a healthier and cleaner product to restaurants and individuals. Basically, “bread without preservatives and all the crap you don’t need,” she says.
Four months ago, Rubidoux launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds for licensing and equipment. So far, she’s raised $1,345 of her $3000 goal, and since April, she’s been working to get her products in local restaurants. She now supplies PublicUs, Atomic Kitchen, Vegenation and the Phoenix Bar and Lounge with vegan bread and bun options. Order a veggie burger from The Kitchen at Atomic and it’ll come with a vegan potato bun, straight from Bread for the People.
“I choose a lot of bread that is naturally already vegan,” Rubidoux says. “[Most] bread is vegan, but then they cover it in egg wash. If people didn’t do that, the restaurants would have bread for everybody.”
Thus the name, Bread for the People. And Rubidoux offers a little bit of everything—cinnamon rolls and garlic knots, olive and sundried tomato focaccia and beautiful rose-infused loaves with flowers from Bloomin' Desert Herb Farm.
Her latest favorite, the Everything Baguette, is basically your favorite bagel in bread form. “It looks really pretty and it tastes really awesome,” she says. Ordering is as easy as scanning her Instagram at @breadforthepeople and sending her a direct message.
“My plan is to have a larger kitchen and staff,” she says. “I’d like to take over a majority of Downtown and start providing all the restaurants in town [with bread], so that they don’t have to question who can eat it.”
