Food pioneers at the forefront of innovation

• Start of the business 
• Every brief starts at the factory
• Insect-based products

When two people give up on very successful individual careers to form a company together, at the very least, you would expect them to get along. However, according to former Michelin-starred chef David Jones, that wasn’t always the case.

“Before we started working together, I knew who Jonny [Bingham] was – and I couldn’t stand him. He used to wear a cravat, and he looked like a right idiot,” he says, with a wry smile.

While early impressions can often be deceptive, there’s little doubt that the pair – who used to compete for retail shelf-space as development chefs at rival food manufacturers – have since formed a close and successful relationship in their three-and-a-half years together.

During that time, Bingham and Jones have established themselves as pioneers of new product development (NPD), working at the coalface of innovation with food and beverage companies of all sizes.

And, having just opened two new ‘innovation kitchens’ in Nottingham and Preston, they are as well-placed as any to offer views on the latest food trends, what’s likely to be big over the next few years, and why some NPD is doomed to fail.

After a long and varied career running restaurants and hotels (see box), Bingham moved into food manufacture when he joined Bakkavor in 2010. But it was during his time at Samworth Brothers when he first encountered Jones, a renowned chef who was by then working for Greencore.

“He was dealing with the same retail food developers as I was. I was winning dishes. He was winning dishes,” says Jones. A job vacancy in the south of England came up, and it soon became apparent they had both been shortlisted.

Start of the business (back to top)

“I was gobsmacked that I was shortlisted – as it was a very senior position. However, as it was based in the south I decided I didn’t want it,” Jones explains. “Jonny didn’t want the job either – and at the point, we started to talk about the possibility of doing something together.”

The pair were told by “a good few people” that the business would never work, as no company would trust them with the intellectual property of any product outside the factory environment.

“Some of those people still don’t want anything to do with us – but some are now our customers,” says Bingham.

Up until recently, they operated from the University of Nottingham, which had its pros and cons. “Being based at the university, we were often seen as an academic function,” Bingham explains.

“It meant we were getting lots of work around nutrition, which we are happy to take on. But first and foremost, we’re a culinary function – that’s what we want people to know us for.”

Moving the business into the innovation kitchens has brought another advantage, according to Jones.

“We’re great believers in the idea that you are stimulated by your environment, and these kitchens are the right environment for us to flourish,” he explains.

The first port of call for any project though is the manufacturing site in which the final product will eventually be made.

Every brief starts at the factory (back to top)

“Every brief starts with us going to the factory, because we can’t do anything until we know what the site capabilities are,” says Bingham.

While both hail from ready meal backgrounds, they are comfortable working across all food categories – and it has helped them develop a keen sense of the latest market trends.

 “Health is the big thing at the moment – it’s just gone bananas,” says Bingham. “Health, protein, free-from, gluten-free, fermented – typically, a client will want a product covering at least one of these areas, without necessarily knowing what that product should look like.”

Jones claims in-house software, which enables them to work within very closely measured nutrition parameters, means making gluten-free products hasn’t been as tough as first thought.

But that hasn’t been the case for all categories, as he explains. “The high-protein market is challenging. We’ve been asked to create a product that will have the highest protein content of any product within its category, and it’s proving far from easy.”

Another protein-related trend that has had the pair perplexed is the rise of insects as a meat alternative. Two years ago, they were so keen on the idea they touted the possibility of launching a range of insect-based ready meals.

Today, however, the duo believe insects are little more than a novelty, as the market “just isn’t there”.

Insect-based products (back to top)

“We can make great insect-based products, and we can talk about how nutritional they are – but the fact is that the science behind it is still not proven,” says Jones.

Another issue, he adds, is that insects from the major suppliers are “incredibly expensive”, while alternative sources – from Thailand in particular – have issues around quality.

“Having said all that, we are funding a University of Nottingham student on the subject of the psychological barriers that are attached to humans consuming insects – so we’re open to having our minds changed,” Jones says.

The pair are open to input from new food innovators too, having recently taken on an extra pair of hands.

New recruit Aaron Givon trod a similar career path in working for illustrious restaurants, before moving into food manufacture with Greencore. He claims his time with Bingham and Jones has resulted in an “creative hotpot of ideas”, compared with the limitations of working with a large manufacturer.

“When you work for a retail manufacturer, generally you are operating within a team that works on a single account. But because contracts with retailers are cyclical, and the retailer is only really concerned with churning out high volumes, as a chef it’s very easy to get stale,” Givon says.

“In a sector that should be massively full of innovation, it’s a very linear process that doesn’t aid creativity.”

In contrast, for Bingham and Jones, it’s that creative drive that keeps them at the top of their game. “We approach nothing with a heavy heart. In fact, we relish any challenge people throw at us,” Bingham says.

Meanwhile, watch as Jonny Bingham and David Jones discuss how the new innovation kitchens can benefit clients in our exclusive video interview.