Oh, the agony, the blow to New York Jewish pride when our hometown newspaper proclaimed the superiority of the California bagel.

How dare The New York Times! What could granola-crunching West Coast Jews know about bagels when New Yorkers have been baking them for more than a century – and they never invented anything more original than avocado toast?

It’s time to find out.

Join the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center and the Forward for a chewy, carb-o-licious competition between the best bagels from New York and California. We’ll talk to the bakers defending their own dough and ovens. We’ll talk to food critics. We’ll even talk to the man at Zabar’s who knows shmears better than anyone in America. Then, the panelists will conduct a blind taste test of bagels from both coasts.

Dense and chewy? Crusty? Hint of malt? A bit of sourdough? We’ll unpack all the secrets and weigh in on what makes a bagel more than a chewy donut without the sugar!

With:
Len Berk, Zabar’s Lox Counterman
Chef Imani Jackson, founder and CEO of Chopped
Julia Moskin, New York Times food staff reporter
Emily Winston, Boichik Bagels
Additional panelists to be announced.

Moderated by Rob Eshman, Food Editor, The Forward