Greg Wade

Leading America’s bread renaissance in Chicago is Greg Wade, Managing Partner at Publican Quality Bread, the renowned bakery under the Publican family of restaurants by Chicago’s nine-time James Beard Award-winning One Off Hospitality Group and Partners Donnie Madia, Paul Kahan, Terry Alexander, and Eduard Seitan.

A graduate of the Illinois Institute of Art’s Culinary Program, Wade started his career specializing in breads and pastries. Joining Publican Quality Bread as head baker in 2014, Wade has transformed the concept’s baking program from a seedling operation within Publican Quality Meats to a highly successful wholesale division that works hand-in-hand with One Off Hospitality’s other concepts as well as the top chefs, farmers and retail owners in the Windy City.

In 2022, Wade and partners opened a standalone bakery for Publican Quality Bread in West Town, bringing his award-winning loaves and an expanded menu of artisan sandwiches, tartines and decadent pastries to a public-facing location for the first time ever, followed by a second location in Oak Park in spring of 2024. Specializing in whole grains and fermentation, Wade was honored with a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Baker” in 2019 and is an active member of the Artisan Grain Collaborative, an organization of farmers, millers, and chefs committed to biodiversity and preserving ancient grains.

He is the author of “Bread Head: Baking for the Road Less Traveled” (Food & Wine, Eater, Epicurious: “Best Cookbooks of 2022”) and has been featured in the documentary, “Sustainable: A Documentary on the Local Food Movement in America,” which is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.