The New Primal

FROM THE BEGINNING
As a kid growing up in Tampa, Florida, Jason figured it was normal to have extended family and, at times, half the neighborhood drop by for dinner on the regular. It didn’t occur to him to wonder why the Burkes weren’t guests around someone else’s table… his mom was always the best cook in the room. And why mess with the best, especially at mealtime?

After college, a move to the burgeoning food mecca of Charleston, South Carolina proved a decent sub (but never a replacement), for Mama Burke’s Cuban-influenced recipes. The vending machine at work, however, was a different story. Health-minded but ever-carnivorous, Jason began making his own jerky – with grass-fed beef, simple spices, and a countertop dehydrator – to keep in his desk drawer. Officemates took notice (by sight and by smell), and when a handful of favors turned into dozens of orders, the seeds of a bona fide start-up were planted. Enriched with a crackerjack team, clever branding, and a test kitchen the stuff of food-taster dreams, The New Primal launched in 2012. In short order, the meat-eating masses were devouring its humanely-sourced, insanely-good jerky.