The Bagel Roller

[weinoo]

For the YouTube series “On the Job,” Priya Krishna spent a day with Celestino García, who works his magic at three New York shops.

 

 

 

This guy is nuts.  The interviewer is annoying (and who toasts a fresh, hand-rolled bagel?).

[Kim Shook]

That was fantastic!  Thanks for posting.  I didn't find her annoying at all.  And it depends on what I'm putting on my bagel whether it gets toasted or not.  Cream cheese - a fresh warm bagel just gets split.  Butter - gotta be toasted for me.  Most bagels get toasted because they need the flavor boost - I'm quite sure these do not.  But I'd still have a buttered one toasted.  

[weinoo]

11 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

That was fantastic!  Thanks for posting.  I didn't find her annoying at all.  And it depends on what I'm putting on my bagel whether it gets toasted or not.  Cream cheese - a fresh warm bagel just gets split.  Butter - gotta be toasted for me.  Most bagels get toasted because they need the flavor boost - I'm quite sure these do not.  But I'd still have a buttered one toasted.  

 

But I think toasting, when buying good, fresh bagels, ruins the idea of a crispy/chewy exterior with a nice, fluffy interior...it changes the whole dynamic!

[pastrygirl]

Impressive work ethic bordering on toxic.  Seven days a week until you collapse, broken, at 65 ... ugh 😳

 

I'm surprised that he only mixes and shapes the dough and leaves the boiling & baking to others.  Is it really that special of a skill? 

[chromedome]

12 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Impressive work ethic bordering on toxic.  Seven days a week until you collapse, broken, at 65 ... ugh 😳

 

I'm surprised that he only mixes and shapes the dough and leaves the boiling & baking to others.  Is it really that special of a skill? 

Yeah, it is if you want to do it in commercial volumes/timeframes. As it happens, I had randomly tripped across this article yesterday about the heyday of the hand-made bagel:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bagel-union-strikes-new-york-city

[weinoo]

A few of my ancestors were bagel bakers.  They are actually buried in sections of cemeteries that the various bagel bakers' unions purchsed...

 

Quote

Before the 1937 formation of Bagel Bakers Union Local 338, smaller organizations served the needs of this critical trade. Bagel bakers belonged to Locals 505, 507 and 509 of the larger Bakery Worker’s Unions. Jewish Bakers Associations were organized in the Bronx and Brownsville Brooklyn. Membership meetings of many groups were held in downtown halls where not a trace remains today of their glorious union past.

Local 31 of the Jewish Bakers Union was formed on the Lower East Side in 1885, but it was short lived, even after its resurrection in 1890. It’s no wonder a sick and benevolent society was needed. Bagel bakeries on the Lower East were basement gehennas of filth and squalor, where the men labored bare-chested among roaches and mice fourteen hours a day. The heat, fatigue and germs surely shortened many bakers’ lives. For $665 the First Beigel Bakers Kranken Unterstuetzungs Verein of 145 Suffolk Street acquired a place in the country for its members to take a final break. Section G, Lots 1100-1109 would be the site, Baron de Hirsch the resting place.

 

https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/whats-in-a-name

 

And a bissel more...

 

https://untappedcities.com/2020/11/24/notorious-bagel-famines-new-york-city/

[heidih]

@weinoo That is cool on the cemetaries. I did a gravestone/monument project couple hours north of here that had a lot of Italian vineyard worker plots. Many referenced the vine and wine. Wonder if the bagel ones have similar references. 

[weinoo]

He may indeed be a genius.  So I took one for the team...

 

 

First of all, they are giant - between 5.5 and 6.0 ounces each. I didn't see any minis (my usual preference at bagel places where they're making giant bagels), but am told the do roll and bake minis...maybe next time, if there is a next time.

 

Tompkins Square Bagels is on many lists of top 10 bagels in NYC. 

 

 

But not mine. In any event, back to the interviewer being annoying...so why not ask why the bagels are so damn big? (Even though we know the answer).

[gfweb]

On 5/21/2023 at 7:44 AM, weinoo said:

 

But I think toasting, when buying good, fresh bagels, ruins the idea of a crispy/chewy exterior with a nice, fluffy interior...it changes the whole dynamic!

 

Toasting is a repair technique. Freshens a tough bagel.

 

[gfweb]

On 5/21/2023 at 10:30 AM, pastrygirl said:

Impressive work ethic bordering on toxic.  Seven days a week until you collapse, broken, at 65 ... ugh 😳

 

I'm surprised that he only mixes and shapes the dough and leaves the boiling & baking to others.  Is it really that special of a skill? 

I agree.

 

But I think I'd pay someone to do it for me anyway

[weinoo]

On 5/21/2023 at 10:30 AM, pastrygirl said:

I'm surprised that he only mixes and shapes the dough and leaves the boiling & baking to others.  Is it really that special of a skill? 

 

I think rolling is THE main skill. 

 

That's why they make these...

 

 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by weinoo (log)