The Secret History of the Bagel
I don’t talk about bagels much, though I love them dearly, because I try to keep the deli world distinct from the bagel/appetizing world…as it should be. But I have to post about this.
Last week I read a great article by my friend Ari Weinzweig, the guru-founder of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. Two years ago Ari took me to Zingerman’s bakehouse, where they were making chewy, crisp, hand twisted bagels similar to those I’ve enjoyed in Montreal. The man knows and loves bagels, and his article “The Secret History of the Bagel“, in the Atlantic’s food pages, is a worthwhile read.
While a bagel is accurately “a round bread” with a hole in the middle, it’s really so, so much more than that. The way we see it around here is that it’s always the story behind the food — not just the bit that we hold in our hands or put in our mouths — that makes it so much more than just something to eat. Otherwise, why not just go for some of those pills that they used to “eat” on The Jetsons instead of sitting down to enjoy equally nutritious “slow” meals that have actually been cooked?
Bagels, it turns out, are very much a bread thread that pulls through hard times, dreams, visions, organizational development, good luck, and good food.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF “THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE BAGEL” AT THEATLANTIC.COM
