Lucinda Bruce-GardyneFounder of Genius Bread

Genius is the invention of Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, a mother with three young children, two of whom have food allergies. She isn’t just any mum though, she is a professionally-trained chef having worked at Michelin-starred Bibendum in London under top chef Simon Hopkinson.

She is the co-author of the award-winning ‘Leith’s Techniques Bible’ and also wrote the best selling cookery book, ‘How to Cook for Food Allergies’. On top of all that, Lucinda also has a degree in physiology and is extraordinarily persistent – baking literally hundreds and hundreds of loaves on her way to creating Genius Gluten-Free Bread.

It was during the writing of ‘How to Cook for Food Allergies’ that Lucinda really got the bug to create a delicious fresh loaf:

"Creating fresh gluten-free bread is far from easy, because it is the gluten in wheat flour that allows dough to rise and which gives bread its chewiness and elasticity.

"However, I refused to accept that my two children who have a restricted diet would miss out on the pleasure the rest of my family get from food. I wanted Robin, my son, to be able to enjoy ‘soldiers’ with his egg just like any other little boy.

"I knew I could improve on the gluten-free loaves that were already on the market, but that wasn’t enough. I was determined to create a loaf that everyone would want to eat – whether they had gluten intolerance or not.

"It took me three years to perfect Genius Gluten-Free Bread and my children would often come home from school to find 14 different loaves of bread waiting for them to try. I even broke my oven. But finally I got there.

"What a relief it is now just to be able to nip along to the supermarket and buy the bread."