Matthew Jones: Founder of Bread Ahead

October 26, 2024·24 min·2 clips

Matthew Jones describes falling in love with baking as a teenager, giving 100% to his career from day one.

This episode of Jazz Shapers features host Elliot Moss interviewing Matthew Jones, the founder of the artisan bakery and baking school Bread Ahead. Jones left school at 15 without qualifications, driven by a childhood passion for baking learned from his mother. He describes the UK food scene of the 1970s and 80s as a "barren landscape" of frozen pizzas and instant snacks. Jones began his career through a youth training scheme at Thackeray's House restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, where he learned classic techniques like making terrines and plucking pheasants. He later worked for eight years in Sir Terence Conran's restaurant group before opening his first business, Flower Power City Bakery, in 1999 on Hoxton Street. That wholesale business supplied early clients like Neal's Yard Dairy and participated in the original Borough Market. Jones launched Bread Ahead in 2013 at Borough Market, focusing on retail and a baking school that now teaches 20,000 people annually. The bakery has expanded to six London locations and has international sites in Jeddah and Dubai. A standout product is the creme brulee donut, created accidentally by burning sugar on a donut with a branding iron; it became a viral sensation and their top seller. Jones reflects that running a bakery is a "brutal" and "incredibly intense" business, describing it as a problem that is never solved. He finds the manual process of rolling croissants—he can hand-roll 13 in one minute—to be a meditative practice that allows his mind to plan his day. Jones admits his early career was marked by a chaotic culture of "work and the pub" that nearly broke him, until he stopped drinking 15 years ago for clarity. Taking on investor Luke Johnson after Flower Power exposed him to formal business practices. He now prefers Bread Ahead's current scale of 180 employees, where he knows all staff and can visit each location. A meaningful moment was seeing employees' children start working in the business, which he sees as a sign of success. The tone is conversational and reflective, blending personal biography with practical business insights. Listeners interested in culinary entrepreneurship, the evolution of London's food scene, or stories of personal reinvention would enjoy this episode. Those seeking a highly structured business case study or debates on industry trends might find it less aligned.

As heard by us

A bakery founder story that values graft, discipline, and the habits behind the work.

Matthew Jones is presented with a steady, unshowy clarity: a kitchen with his mum, school at 15, Michelin rooms, then Bread Ahead. The strongest part is how the details do the work.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Hear how Matthew Jones, who left school at 15, built Bread Ahead from kitchen discipline and hard-earned craft.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Jazz Shapers