When it comes to carbs, not all are made equal: a truth Brooklyn Boy Bagels has proven once and for all.
The Marrickville-based bakery has been dubbed the home of the best bagels in Asia Pacific and the third-best bagels internationally at the 2024 BagelFest.
But the road to BagelFest success wasn’t straightforward. "It takes a certain amount of passion and insanity to try to recreate your bagels on the other side of the world, far from your ingredient suppliers, equipment and staff,” says New York-born, Brooklyn Boy Bagels Founder and ex-food journalist, Michael Shafran.
"I had to pry myself out of operating the business and get back to mixing, hand rolling and baking. It’s very physical work and I needed to retrain – it’s not easy to do this stuff at 58 years old.”
New York BagelFest is the world’s premier bagel celebration, bringing together the biggest bagel aficionados from around the world to compete head-to-head at Citi Field, the home stadium of the NY Mets baseball team.
Michael flew to the Motherland to throw Brooklyn Boy Bagels’ dough in the ring against some of the best artisans, owners and industry experts. Brooklyn Boy Bagels’ award-worthy bagel line-up? Its 72-hour plain bagel, Tiger bagel, za’atar bagel and smoked malt and freekah bagel; plus a selection of its most creative schmears and spreads including shichimi butter, Tim Tam cream cheese, bacon bourbon and maple cream cheese and housemade labneh.
As American Immigration laws prevented Brooklyn Boy Bagels’ Nepalese head baker from entering the country, Michael had him on-call throughout the whole process.
"We collaborated together a lot before heading to New York, so not having him on the ground was tough, but we made it work. In a bakery, we have to pivot constantly with temperature fluctuations, equipment failures, power outages and staffing hassles, so we know how to roll with problem-solving.”
Michael also had his NSW single-origin Provenance ‘Hellfire Flour’ shipped to New York:
"It’s not a Brooklyn Boy bagel without it. It would be like a French winemaker using grapes from another country,” he says.
He worked with the team at Sydney’s Pepe Saya to ensure its cultured butter was on hand to make Brooklyn Boy Bagels’ shichimi butter. Taking out the bronze medal in the ‘Best International’ Bagel category, it’s safe to say that the effort was worth it.
Brooklyn Boy Bagels was flanked on the podium by Lisbon’s Rhodo Bagels and Canada’s iconic Montreal bagelry St-Viateur B and has its sights set on the top spot in 2025.
"To take out the bronze for best international bagel and to be the first bagel maker in all of Asia Pacific to ever be on the global podium is something we’re extremely proud of,” says Shafran. "We’re now on the same playing field as the world’s best bagel shops. Now we’ve had a taste, we’ll be back for sure and gunning for gold.”
You can try Brooklyn Boy Bagels’ award-winning bagels at both the Marrickville and Surry Hills locations. They’re baked fresh daily, 7 days a week from the Marrickville bakery.
