For many, sourdough starters were a staple of the COVID-19 era. But for Noble Bread and Noble Eatery founder Jason Raducha, they are a way of life.
Raducha was born in Chicago but moved to Phoenix, which he considers home, at 10 years old. His aunt Mary followed Raducha’s immediate family to the Valley as well. “This was the early 1990s, and bread machines were all the rage,” says Raducha. “Aunt Mary bought me one as a gift, likely from one of those 2 a.m. infomercials so popular at the time.” And while most people made a few loaves in their bread machines and then left them to gather dust for a decade, Raducha was mesmerized by the alchemy of flour and water creating something not only edible, but delicious. “That bread machine, combined with my love of cooking with my grandmother aka Nana, inspired me to take culinary electives all through high school,” says Raducha, who graduated from Paradise Valley High School in 2002. “I didn’t make the move to do it professionally, however, until much later.”
As adept with technology as he is butter’s best friend, Raducha earned a computer science degree and worked in IT for several years, and then for a food supply company, before coming to a crossroads in 2012. “That year, Simply Bread went out of business, and I found myself without any good-quality bread in town, except for the bread I made myself,” says Raducha. “So I decided to throw caution to the wind, grabbing my computer and walking out of my career on a hunch that others would love my loaves as much as me.” To test the theory, while setting up the business that would become Noble Bread, Raducha launched a Kickstarter campaign, which raised more than $30,000 in 30 days. “That told me I had something here,” says Raducha, who got his country bread into farmer’s markets before year’s end, slowly growing his business piece by piece, crumb by crumb.
In the early years of Noble Bread, Raducha first baked in his garage. When neighbors complained, he moved the operations to his parents’ home. “Other than my folks, I point to two local chefs for really coming on board to support me early on in a big way: Justin Beckett and Cullen Campbell,” says Raducha. His success led him to rent a bakery in Phoenix before settling on his permanent location on 26th Street and McDowell. In 2013 Raducha added Noble Eatery, first near the bakery and today in the Biltmore area.
Today, Noble Bread is on the menu or available for sale in over 100 locations across Arizona, including Chula Seafood, Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort, The Macintosh, OEB Breakfast Co., The Gladly, Citizen Public House, Twisted Grove, Miracle Mile Deli, and – of course – at both Beckett’s Table and Southern Rail, each co-owned by Beckett. The country loaf remains Noble’s most popular item, but there are well over a dozen types of bread offered by Raducha in every shape and size imaginable – from buttermilk buns and hoagie rolls to ciabatta and baguettes – as well as a wide variety of flavors, including marble rye, cranberry walnut, oat, nine grain and semolina. At Noble Eatery, they decorate the bread with a bevy of proteins and condiments each day, resulting in epic sandwiches and ever-changing specials to delight his rabid throng of patrons.
When asked how he made a garage bakery into one of Arizona’s most respected culinary empires, Raducha credits his family (especially Aunt Mary, Nana and his parents), hard work – he puts in well over 70 hours a week, often until 4 a.m. – and obsession with quality. “We only use organic GMO-free flours, water and sea salt as well as an organic levain starter,” says Raducha. “On average, one loaf takes 36 hours, but we like to think the result is worth it.” According to fans now all over the globe, it certainly is.
Written By Alison Bailin Batz
Photographed by Luke Irvin