Let's Talk Food With: Jason Geary

Fourth Generation Master Baker

Jason has been baking bread for over 40 years, first at his family's Geary's Bakery and then starting his own brand called Jason's Sourdough. His objective is to bring artisan sourdough bread into everyone's homes and to establish Jason's Sourdough into new markets.

Tell us what the 60-second Jason Geary “foodie” speed dating intro would be.

Hi, my name's Jason. I've been baking bread for over 40 years. My love and passion for baking bread started when I was a young boy. Our family house was attached to the family bakery and all I can remember was coming home from school, putting my school bags down and walking down to the bakery with my whites on. Off I’d go to bake bread with all the workers. That's basically it - for as long as I can remember, I've always been baking bread.

What's been your proudest career achievement to date?

I have two. The first was when I was 18, I won the British Bakery Students Championship and went on to win the award for the next three years in a row. That's my biggest personal achievement. My other biggest achievement was starting Jason’s Sourdough, and I now consider it to be a privilege to watch the brand grow with our amazing team.

What have been some of the biggest influences in your life and career?

The biggest influence in my life has certainly been my wife, Lynn. She's always taught me never to judge a book by its cover, and get to know people. It's definitely made me a better person in life, without a doubt.

In regards to work, it's really quite simple for me - the colleagues I work with have been the biggest influence on my career. Throughout the years at Geary's, I have seen many people come and go but the majority stay with us until they retire! It feels like a big family, one that we have created together. You get to know these people so well as individuals and you get to know and love their families too. In business, I honestly think sometimes that's all you need - just unbelievable people around you. And I've been very lucky, very blessed to have this all throughout my years of working with Geary’s and most recently Jason’s Sourdough.

How would you describe your approach to food and innovation?

Food and innovation is probably the most important thing at Jason’s Sourdough. I’d say my approach to food is always producing high quality products. I'm a real foodie person and I like nice things and love being innovative. I think we're quite lucky in the UK now with the innovation in the food industry. Years ago, you would have had to travel the world to find new ideas and the most innovative products. Currently in the UK, especially in some of the major cities, such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, innovation is everywhere. People are coming up with some great products & some great trends. For me, innovation is about walking, talking, discovering, trying, tasting and looking for that next product.

What do you see as the most exciting things coming down the track in terms of food and trends?

We’re seeing a surge in balanced and heathy eating as a family which is great. I ran the London Marathon recently and I’ve really been focusing on how nutrition is key in terms of preparation and performance. By eating balanced meals and focusing a little more on what I’m fueling my body with, I’ve actually surpassed all expectations in my training so far. This new lifestyle will certainly have a lasting effect on me and my family and I see this healthy, balanced lifestyle being more and more prominent in more people's everyday lives.

One of the most important things we wanted to do with Jason’s Sourdough is create a bread that is easily available for all in the supermarkets, that is nutritious, healthy whilst using the simplest of great quality ingredients. With that, we needed to ensure it was sold at a price point accessible to all.

Jason’s Sourdough is made using our own starter culture which is fermented for over 24 hours. There’s certainly been a rise in pickling and fermented products recently which links back to our sourdough bread. These new innovative pickling products blur the lines between cuisines which in turn open the door for more creativity and excitement in products.

What makes a good artisan bread?

Good artisanal bread always starts off with great ingredients, flour being the main one. It's amazing how many people overlook flour, but when you actually start understanding what flour does, you realise why it is so important. It creates different flavours, colours and looks that make each bread so unique. Ingredients are the key, and after that it's all about a process and time. Without time, you can't make a great product. Fermentation comes through time. So ingredients, time & process.

How do you manage to thrive amongst competition and keep ahead of the game?

Staying ahead of the competition is not easy, but it's a combination of a few factors: first packaging, having the visual impact on the supermarket shelf when people go to choose a product. Then it’s about delivering quality products at the right price. I think our price point is really, really important. We're trying to make a really great product with the best quality ingredients and avoid using anything ultra processed. We then want it to look great on shelf. All of which we hope leads to people picking it up. Once they’ve picked us up and made the initial purchase, they need to put their trust in our bread and come back for more.

What are your future ambitions for the brand?

The future ambition for the brand is really quite simple for me. It's about building household penetration, basically getting more people to switch from everyday plant bread onto great sourdough bread. That's really important. Moving forward, it's seeing how Jason’s Sourdough can expand the brand into other markets.