Even though it was started by your great grandfather, Russ & Daughters has largely been run by women throughout the company’s history. In an industry that is dominated by men, what kind of challenges did that present? And why has it made Russ & Daughters so special?
It’s true, this is the first business in this country that’s called “& Daughters.” And my great grandfather was totally pioneering and some people thought it was crazy and offensive but then my father ran the business with my mom, and now back to me and Josh so I mean it hasn’t totally been all run by women but the female presence is very strong and I do feel proud to have chosen to follow in the footsteps of my grandmother and her sisters because they didn’t have a choice. They were a poor Jewish family and this is what you this is just what they were expected to do, that’s how the family survived. In my case, I chose to do this.

What makes a Russ & Daughters bagel the best in the world?
Well, so here’s the thing. We have always held on to preserving what is a real New York bagel and even when we were swimming against the current because we have maintained that a bagel should be smaller and have that hard crust, that it’s an artisanal product. But bagels sort of became this mass-produced thing. Unfortunately, New York is famous for bagels but the bagel scene got kind of bad. They kind of got worked into this commercial product that was huge and sweet and you still see it all over. We always countered that and refuse to give into that because we know what a real bagel is. And a bagel was also meant to be the vehicle for cream cheese and the lox, it’s not supposed to be like the end-all be-all. It’s just the platform, just the canvas. At Russ & Daughters, it takes us nearly two days to make our bagels because we don’t cut any corners and it’s a long process. We use the best quality flour, not bromated. We don’t have any sponges or accelerants, so you have to proof the bagels and allow the yeast to activate and then you have to retard the bagels which is basically cooling them. And that takes between 12 and 24 hours and then you boil them and then you bake them. So, one bagel is a two-day process. And we use traditional wooden boards like planks with a burlap runner on top. And that’s how we bake the bagels. So the bagels go on top of these boards, they get seeded and then they go in the oven and then they get finished, we flip them off the boards and then they sit on the stone of the oven to finish the bake. So it’s a process. We’re always holding up the work and see ourselves as the torchbearers of what a true bagel should be.

Your cart

Your cart is empty