Meet the pioneer behind the State Fair’s popular French Meadow stand

As soon as the gates of the Great Minnesota Get-Together open and fairgoers start lining up at her French Meadow stand, Lynn Gordon is greeting guests and tucking behind the counter to assist with latte and food orders.

That includes warm scones with house cream cheese, cinnamon twists that she bakes daily and the top selling deep-fried cauliflower Earth Wings with sesame barbecue.

The presence of French Meadow, a State Fair destination for whole foods as well as gluten-free and vegan-friendly offerings, has been a fan favorite since its debut in 1996. While the fair is all about cheat days, the fact that French Meadow, known for scratch cooking and organic ingredients, draws long lines year after year says something about how Gordon has carved out a niche that has defied the business odds.

Gordon has been dreaming the impossible since the very beginning. When she launched French Meadow out of a commercial kitchen 40 years ago, it became the first certified organic bakery in the United States.

“What they’ve done is truly amazing in the world of organic and, while there are fakes and frauds out there, they’ve been unwavering in their mission and commitment,” said Terry Gips, president and co-founder of the Minnesota-based Alliance for Sustainability, a national nonprofit that promotes sustainability, health and equity.

French Meadow has been at the forefront in changing the organic food dining landscape, he said, adding that successfully drawing mainstream audiences when organic food was perceived as dirty and unappealing was a feat within itself.

“Lynn took it to a whole new level with outstanding food that would appeal to a wide range of tastes. Then, by having vegan options, she showed people that they could have really creative vegan choices,” he said. “No one was doing that at the time, it was remarkable — I wish everybody could understand what their presence in the Twin Cities means.”

In the early 1980s, Gordon attended the Himalayan Institute in Philadelphia to study holistic health. It was a game-changer. “That’s when I became aware of the macrobiotic diet,” she said of the plant-based, whole-foods eating philosophy.

Gordon wanted to immerse herself in the subject, and enrolled in a summer camp at French Meadows in California’s Tahoe National Forest, where she learned macrobiotic cooking techniques. Days were filled with foraging for astringent herbs such as dandelions, making scratch dishes like miso and soba and “pickling 20 different ways,” she recalled.

“Food is medicine, and how you cook it, season it — that’s the remedy.”

It was in Tahoe where Gordon learned to make yeast-free bread, known for its support of the digestive system, among other health benefits. Returning to Minnesota, she couldn’t find a place to buy fresh unleavened bread. That, she decided, would be her mission.

In 1985, Gordon launched French Meadow Bakery, working out of a rented production facility in Burnsville and delivering goods to a small clientele of local bakeries and co-ops. She also taught macrobiotic cooking classes out of her house.

One day, when delivering bread to the former Mud Pie vegetarian restaurant, she came across a vacant space down the street on Lyndale Avenue. The growing commercial district with heavy foot traffic couldn’t be more ideal. And in 1987, Gordon and her business partner Steve Shapiro, who is the books guy, opened French Meadow’s first brick-and-mortar.

“We’re still business partners to this day,” she said.

The bakery counter eventually expanded to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner with a menu that included sandwiches, such as the bestselling tempeh Reuben, that were a revelation in building flavors with plant-based ingredients. Desserts also became a robust part of the operation, so much so that the chocolate-layered Rose Cake is as synonymous with French Meadow as the breads it was founded on.

Gordon has stayed true to the wholesome, non-GMO, “always from scratch” philosophy, but customers have influenced key decisions. While plant-based cooking was the initial driving force, Gordon has expanded the menu to include meat and dairy options.

“I was very inflexible at the beginning about it being only macrobiotic foods,” she said. But “my food philosophy is listening to the customer.”

“People were wanting that full-service option,” Gordon said.

Beyond the restaurant walls, French Meadow’s impact can be felt on a larger scale.

Farmer Larry Schultz said that when French Meadow first opened, it played a crucial role in supporting the livelihoods of local organic farms in a way that no one was doing at the time.

Gordon began purchasing eggs from his family’s Owatonna, Minn., farm 40 years ago. The decision to buy directly from the source was an anomaly in the era of commercialized farming that favored more volume at lower costs delivered through a single-source distributor.

“In the early ’80s, it was rough, but then Lynn started buying eggs from my mom and dad” and became their biggest customer, Schultz said. “To source everything directly [from several purveyors] — that’s a lot of traffic coming through your door versus the simplicity of one truck, but they took that upon themselves.”

“They’re the pioneers,” Schultz said. “After seeing what French Meadow was doing and that it actually does work, other restaurants followed because now they had that model to move forward.”

These days, Gordon can be found working supporting roles in the kitchen while she relies on her chefs to carry out existing recipes and create new menu items.

After four decades, Gordon said she is looking to hand over the keys.

She said the next visionary would have plenty of mentors between Gordon and her children. Her daughter Debbie is a server and manager at the Lyndale Avenue location (she and her husband Christopher also run the State Fair stand). Daughter Jenny is co-manager at the St. Paul location, and her son Jay delivers cakes and breads between the two French Meadow locations. But they’re not interested in taking the reins, Gordon said.

“I’d partner with someone coming in and work with them and give them the recipes,” she said. “If I find the right person to take over, and you never know where or when that would be, that could be within the next year or two, I’m not sure.”

Even when running the French Meadow restaurants, she’s been active in organizations involving organic, sustainable foodways. At one point she served as a consultant for Isles Bun and Coffee and founded the healthful cafe franchise concept People’s Organic.

For her next chapter, Gordon wants to go back to where it all began: teaching macrobiotic cooking classes that will most definitely include baking breads.