Minute on the clock: Matthew Jones, baker and owner of Bread Ahead

The baker and owner of Bread Ahead has taken his brand global. He talks about why people are taking bread seriously

This summer marked the 10-year anniversary of Bread Ahead. Whatis your proudest achievement over the past decade?

Ten years has just flown by – so much has happened in that time since we started out as a stall in Borough Market.

We have opened shops in London and a second bakery in Wembley, created a wholesale business as well as a baking school, survived the pandemic and opened internationally in the Middle East. But my proudest moment is when we were taken seriously as an international player – people come to visit us from all over the world. There has been a growth in people who travel for food experiences, and they have a list of five or so things they want to do when they come to London, and we’re part of that.

The baking scene is going from strength to strength in London with queues for artisan bakers around the block – why do you think dough is so popular at the moment?

London has really changed. I was a chef when I left school in 1986 and I’ve worked at the likes of Gidleigh Park in Dartmoor and Bibendum in London, and back then the food scene was very small. But now, when you travel abroad and say you’re from London, it’s a big deal and very cool.

People are taking bread seriously – it’s no longer just a cheap commodity in a plastic bag. People want a proper croissant that tastes of butter and they know the difference and are prepared to pay for it. It’s not uncommon for people to pay £5.25 for a really good almond croissant. You can feel the weight of the thing and it becomes a moment in your day, eating while drinking a really good coffee. People are eating with real purpose and being selective of quality food.

How is the wholesale side of the business going?

During the pandemic the wholesale side collapsed to zero and since then we’ve been much more mindful of building it back up to the business that we want. Wholesale means you’re always fighting for margin and chasing people for money, but we were taking on everything and it was chaos. So we’re keeping it quite small – around 15% of the business – working with local restaurants in Borough, supplying the Tate and Tate Britain, and working closely with Eggslut. We have about 20 customers that we look after and we’re focused on our own retail operation, which we’re in control of.

What does the future hold for Bread Ahead?

Over the next three years we’ll be continuing to launch sites in the Middle East, with Cairo, Qatar, Bahrain, Morocco and Kuwait all in the plans, and we’re in talks to look further at Asia, India and America.

We’re also going to continue building up our baking classes. In the school at the moment we offer classes for home bakers, school children and corporate events, but I’d like to extend it to more hospitality businesses. When you bring a group of creative people like chefs into a different environment like our bakery, it’s a very inspirational place to create new things, so I could see chefs thinking outside the box in food development courses.