FOOD: Nicoline Greer meets an Australian who's changing the face of our daily bread.
Ari Gardiner could be described as something of a serial entrepreneur. He started young: at eight he ran snail races in school - 45 kids would give him $1 each for a snail and he would give the winner $5. He did the same with cane toads, except they cost $2.50 each. It could have been the start of a commercial empire, had the headmaster not found out about it. His next venture was when he was 10 years old and selling shoeboxes full of silkworms. Of course, not everybody had the mulberry leaves that the silkworms needed to eat, so he also sold them mulberry leaves from his back yard.
Then, when the break-dancing craze hit, he went for possibly his cheekiest enterprise yet - selling sheets of cardboard for $4 to put on the ground and spin on. At one stage, when he was a child, his mother thought he was stealing because he had so much money.
This year Gardiner was nominated by Bord Bia as Young Food and Drink Entrepreneur of the Year for his fledgling but precocious company, Lifefibre. The company is only a few years old, but already half the country has got its teeth into the fruit and seed breads. Say HRT Bread to most people and it clicks. Gardiner positively guffaws at the reaction to it. "We're probably renowned for it. We get a great kick out of it. The guys in the shops laugh at us, 'Oh, here come the hormone boys.' It's a real buzz," he says.
They had to change the name to Healthy, Revitalising, Tasty bread after the Department of Consumer Affairs received a complaint pointing out that HRT is in fact a misnomer for something made entirely out of natural ingredients. Changing the name of the bread didn't affect sales - and possibly had a positive effect on sales to the male population.
A chef by trade, Gardiner came up with the recipe for his bread when he was still in Australia. His mother brought home all sorts of seeds and grains - what she called her "chicken feed" - to combat menopausal symptoms in a natural way. He did a lot of research on non-chemical alternatives to HRT, and the bread includes a blend of seeds and whole soya beans with isoflavins.
When he came to Ireland in 1998 from Brisbane, with a one-way ticket and "three hundred quid in my back pocket," Gardiner began by travelling and working in casual jobs. He saw a niche in the market for speciality breads, especially healthy ones. Compared to here, he says, "health is big in Australia. I suppose it comes down to the weather. But, at this stage, we still we really don't have any competition here."
He started the company "from nothing". He made up the recipes himself, and hooked up with Jerry Kiely, who already had a bakery in Castleisland in Co Kerry. It took four weeks for them to get into production and start supplying the shops. That was three years ago. Now, the company has a €1.8 million turnover and employs 25 people.
The HRT bread was in the first range of three breads that they originally made - alongside the Oatbran and Linseed Bread and their bestseller, Hi-Fibre Seed Bread. Fruit and Fibre Bread, Apricot and Sesame Seed Bread, and Carrot, Linseed and Fruit Bread followed. This bread is the polar opposite to white sliced pan or the stodgy rolls you find at most deli counters. All the breads are sugar- and dairy-free. And, they have almost treble the amount of naturally occurring fibre found in normal bread. But healthiness doesn't equal bland or boring. The crunchy texture is a great accompaniment to soups or dips, and a woman recently rang him to tell him that her children refused to eat any other bread.
The bread is handmade and takes about 48 hours to make. They use a mysterious "special process", which he won't divulge. It is delivered daily, and they are now supplying all the major supermarkets and local shops, as well as many small delis.
"We can't compete with the big brands. But we are building a brand name. We are working on different things. I always thought, 'If you're going to do something, do something different.'" It's a long way from cane toads, but Ari Gardiner is winning the race.
Lifefibre breads available from supermarkets and delicatessens