About Us — Black Cockatoo Bakery

Black Cockatoo Bakery founder Alexandre Rivière grew up in the kitchen from a young age. Born in Paris, he followed in his father’s footsteps and worked as a chef all of his life and now, chef turned baker. His baking is rich with passion and history. His wife Lulu is a herbalist and art therapist, she weaves her magic through the business in a manner of plant and art loving ways.

Together they make a wonderful duo.

A little bit about us…

We moved to the Blue Mountains in 2015 from France with our young son. Initially Alex returned to the kitchen as a full time chef, but he soon started to realise his passion towards the craft of sourdough. He made a levain at home and started to bake bread from our kitchen oven, gifting them to friends and neighbours. He taught himself the art of sourdough step by step.

We rented a restaurant at night which housed a 120-year-old wood fire scotch oven and Alex would make the doughs at home in big tubs on our kitchen floor and turn the heating up high to aid fermentation. He would then load the car by the light of the moon and bake through the night, delivering in the mornings to a few local cafes in our family car. Every Saturday, we had a stall at our local organic food coop where, as a family we would sell our bread, I was baking our second son at this time whilst Alex was baking the bread each night.

We reached a point where we needed expansion, the demand was growing and Alex was making, baking, and delivering the bread, with help from friends here and there. We moved forward with finding a space to create our bakery and the rest as they say is history. The name Black Cockatoo is from the love of the majestic birds that Alex would be mesmerised by when we moved into these Mountains.

Love, Alex and Lulu