Pierre Laxague arrived from Aldudes when he was seventeen. Although he came to herd sheep, family in La Puente found him a job at the French-American Bakery. He then moved to Venice, California where he worked under the careful eye of his uncle Jean Baptiste Garacochea, founder of the Pioneer Bakery. He quickly learned his craft and became a master dough maker. In 1945, Pete and his wife Juanita decided to move to Bakersfield, and soon they started their own “French” bakery.

Read more about the French bakery’s early history.