Cat Cox’s breadmaking adventure began in her home kitchen. Less than six years later, she stood in a velvet-draped ballroom in Chicago, James Beard medal around her neck, repping her hometown.
This week, Cat Cox, owner and head baker behind Country Bird Bakery, stepped onstage in Chicago to accept her James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. The James Beard Awards—often called the Oscars of the food world—represent the highest honor in American culinary arts.
Cox’s journey in and out of the restaurant biz follows a familiar culinary loop, a la “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” In Marfa, Texas—by way of NYC—she bartended and eventually took a job in the kitchen of one of the only nice restaurants in town, fast-tracking through the ranks to chef de cuisine. Growing weary of the late-night restaurant grind, she returned home to Tulsa, briefly pivoting to garden education (for elementary school kids, no less).
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But another kitchen beckoned, this time at the much-beloved Living Kitchen Farm & Dairy, led by culinary dynamos chef Lisa Becklund and her partner, Linda Ford. While Cox was baking loaves for guests at Living Kitchen’s farm dinners, she started experimenting—smoking grains, fermenting porridges, and dreaming up whimsical concoctions. Guests clamored for her unforgettable loaves and momentum began to build. She stored dough in her garage and baked in her home kitchen to fulfill orders for a monthly bread club that soon became a weekly ordeal. She hosted popular sourdough breadmaking classes, and provided her signature baked goods to Tulsa’s finest restaurants. Finally in 2022, Cox secured her own little storefront along Studio Row where Country Bird Bakery hatched.