They say necessity is the mother of invention. Yet here’s the story of an innovation father figure. Meet David Jones, creator of plant-based Bakon and co-founder of Thrilling Foods Inc. in Portland, Ore.
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It was in 2019 when Jones’ girlfriend asked him to join her as a vegetarian. Jones agreed—and said he knew a plant-based diet would be healthier, better for the planet and animals as well. Yet as a lifelong meat-eating Texan (and proud Texas-style barbecue cook), it wasn’t long before Jones missed meat’s deep umami flavors, distinctive bite and texture. Meanwhile, Jones admits he was turned off by alternative meat ingredients (too many and many odd technical names) and that’s when his inner chef took over. He was determined to create his own plant-based meat—starting with bacon.
With a kitchen and lots of COVID pandemic time on his hands, Jones turned to traditional soymilk-based tofu. He says he tweaked the process to “include healthy fat and flavor” and then applied some eastern meat curing techniques picked up from a trip to Eastern Europe. Rave product reviews from friends and neighbors subsequently led Jones to stop broadcast media work and dedicate himself to Bakon, his new, patented creation. It was in April 2021 that he started Thrilling Foods with son-in-law and co-founder Jared Hansen. About 10 months later, the company was ready to launch a retail product regionally in Oregon, Washington and parts of California.
Thrilling Foods now claims coast-to-coast US distribution and is expanding into Canada. For his part, Jones says Bakon’s success has its roots in sensory appeal. For starters, it literally looks like traditional bacon and clear packaging conveys its lean and fatty layers. And once the product hits a hot, dry skillet, it quickly produces the familiar sights, sounds and smells. Lean and fatty layers soon render, sizzle and produce a traditional bacon smell.
Jones’ winning formula also involves taste itself.
“When consumers finally taste the product they immediately realize how very close we are to traditional pork bacon. This is due to authentic, old world curing process,” he says. “Bakon gets a day in dry salt, and a day in hardwood smoke and these steps effectively preserve it for months. As a side benefit, you get that distinctive cured flavor. Today, we are the only plant-based bacon processor that cures their product.”
Thrilling Foods has used the Portland Farmers’ Market to meet its repeat customers and solicit product feedback. It’s learned that vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters equally rate Bakon high for flavor, texture and authenticity. No less exciting and interesting is the fact that surveys show that meat enthusiasts make up an estimated two-thirds of repeat Bakon buyers.
Behind the scenes, Thrilling Foods since has expanded well beyond Jones and his own kitchen.
“Today we have 21 employees in two adjacent commercial kitchens due to our production volume demand and expansion,” he notes. “We figured out how to make our own, in-house high quality soymilk; how to increase production volumes without quality loss; and how to improve on Bakon’s textural and handling qualities.”
He concludes, “It’s hard to grasp that this was just an idea while we were floating on the Columbia River three years ago,” he says. “Now we have production kitchens capable to shipping pallets across North America and Bakon consumed every morning from Portland, Maine, to Hawaii. To do all this with very little investment capital is almost unheard of and we’re quite proud.”
