Baker Apollonia Poilane on heading up her family business Franco-American baker Apollonia Poilane runs what is reputed to be one of the world’s best bakeries, but to her, it is a family business and a calling. After her parents died when Poilane was just 18, she stepped up as the head of the bakery that her grandfather founded and father turned into a worldwide name. She sits down with Jamie Wax to talk about her childhood growing up at the bakery and her mother’s design studio, and why she felt it was important to shoulder her family tradition.