Packing in pizzazz with Jeff Leach

It is a place in the midst of pine trees high up in the mountains. There is a picturesque river that flows close by.

I sat next to it to take a break while I was doing an archaeological survey. I closed my eyes, lay down and stared at the sky. I could feel the wind blowing through the pine trees and hear the river flowing. I took a deep breath. It was the calmest place I had ever been to in my life. So now when I am stressed out and find it difficult to fall asleep I think of the place. I also visit it as often as I can because it helps me relax and unwind.

I travel all around the United States and that is a wonderful part about my job as I am able to steal a little time for a short holiday.

I like hiking and water sports, scuba diving, snorkelling, riding and whatever the place has to offer me during my trip. I am embarking on a trip to South America towards the end of March next year where I am going on a motorcycle ride across Southern Patagonia. My vacations also include short visits to my children who reside with their mother in Canada. When I am not working, I love gardening, nurturing plants. It is really fascinating

I grew up in Boston, Texas.

I was poor at academics but I accomplished quite a lot in sports. I attended the University of Texas and New Mexico State University where I studied archaeology. I was initially interested in geological sciences but developed a liking for archaeology because of the human element attached to it. I also became interested in anthropology - the study of modern cultures.

In 1990, I did a field project in New Mexico where we had to go outdoors for a couple of months and do field archaeology in the mountains as a part of our studies. This made me more interested in my study in archaeology.

I was drawn towards the food that people ate, how it was cooked because food and the natural landscape that provides it are the building blocks for all biological systems. If you want to understand what makes us anatomically and physiologically human, you need to only understand food and the evolution of technologies used to manipulate it. It is the most interesting way I know of understanding who and why I am. Hence I continued my studies in this field.

I'm currently working on my PhD at the University of Leicester in archaeology and ancient history. My specific research interests are in nutrition and ancient diets - a subject I have lectured and published on widely (my research website is www.paleobioticslab.com)

Creating job opportunities for our community led us to the pizza business.

In 2006, I came to New Orleans a few months after Hurricane Katrina. The city was devastated. There I met a guy named Randy Crochet who is now my business partner. Like a lot of people in New Orleans, we wanted to create job opportunities in the community... we wanted to create a business that would employ people so decided to step into a food business since this would give me an opportunity to plug business into my research studies about health and well-being.

Why pizza? Because it is a very popular fast food product worldwide and is a 100-billion-dollar business internationally.

Pizza is a convenient format. Like cereal, which you can reformulate and add ingredients to, pizza (specifically the dough) offers the same delivery vehicle. By reformulating the dough and using it as a delivery vehicle to healthier ingredients, we can create a better tasting/better-for-you pizza.

I wanted to utilise my knowledge to have a positive impact on modern society.

My education and interest has always been in food, diet and technology. And then in early 2000, when my daughter was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes, I started focusing on diet and modern society and the choices we make as parents and citizens about food and lifestyle and how it affects our health and well-being.

So I aimed to create a dish on the concept of a modern society, on a business model that would make money and that was also very nutritious. This was the mission with which Naked Pizza started in the US and soon we are starting our franchise called N_K_D Pizza in the UAE, with our first set of stores opening in January in Dubai Marina.

The name Naked Pizza itself accomplishes two things. First, it's a head-turner. And second, naked means natural to most people and we offer a 100 per cent all-natural pizza - no additives, preservatives or chemicals of any kind.

I looked back on the eating habits of humans two million years ago and made connections between how man lived in ancient times and how we live today in a Westernised modern world.

We evolved on a nutritional landscape of a huge diversity of plants and animals that didn't include chemicals, additives or a lot of processing methods. We took good food and processed it into really small practical sizes which made it easy to digest. So what is it about our perfect modern society that caused normal mammals to fall sick? I learnt that it is not just the quantity of food that we eat, it is the kind of the food we consume. Modern pizza is basically a doughnut with tomato sauce. So what a slice of cheese pizza is to a human body is basically pure sugar minus the fat that immediately digests and absorbs and immediately causes a response. Hence, your body doesn't recognise it as a traditional food. So we had to spend a couple of years developing a natural pizza that was made from ten different seeds and grains, had no added sugar or chemicals of any kind and was naturally healthy.

Enthusiasm and a grasp of a mission is very important for anybody who wants to run a business or wants to be successful in any profession they're in.

I acquired my work ethic from my father - he was an extremely hard worker - and empathy from my mother - she was a very kind person.

My enthusiasm and overall commitment to my mission is my strongest skill.

I think one has to be passionate in what one does and should believe in one's goal. It is vital to pay attention to what you do - work well, work hard and work fast. In the process, do not forget to pay attention to your family as well.

Being an entrepreneur is like nothing else in the world - it is hard, occasionally frustrating, stressful but it also has huge rewards - you create jobs for people. So the feeling is remarkable. 

Humour at the end of the day makes everything possible.

I try to have fun and see humour in everything I do. If you can keep a little bit of humour alive in everything, it just makes things easier and life less serious.

I want people to understand that health and well-being are within our grasp. This is possible if we decide to pay attention to the food we eat and ask questions about the food we consume. We need to look beyond the labels.

A business house can play a bigger role than governments in influencing food decisions but without telling people what they should eat. People in the food business should provide their customers with a good proposition - one that will sway them towards their reasoning.