It has to be said: with the bagel having a 600-year-old history, no one can claim to know all the ins and outs of this holesome food. However, drawing on 35 years’ experience, we do think that we’re as close as anyone to mastering the fine art of bagel-baking. B Bagel’s founders, Yoav Baumgarten and Alon Kubi, grew up in homes where food culture was a matter of great pride. When other people might have talked about the weather or the latest soccer scores, the boys’ families would discuss how to achieve an even better crust on mon bagels or where to find the freshest produce. (They would also commonly analyse Alon’s driving skills and Yoav’s romantic advances in the neighbourhood, but that’s another story.) Exploring new tastes and developing recipes was a daily ritual – a way of life.

Then Alon and Yoav set off into the big world on their own and realised that, by and large, it had lost touch with that heartfelt connection to food. Launching successful careers in sales and marketing, they met plenty of businessmen who above all regarded food as a product with X shelf life, Y target group and Z return on investment, seemingly without any feeling whatsoever for what they were selling. A sad state of affairs. It wasn’t long before both Alon and Yoav surrendered to their passion for authentic cuisine. On the expert advice of his father-in-law, Roni, who had been baking bagels since 1989, Alon opened a family-oriented bakery in North West London in 2010. Its popularity quickly gave rise to another two bakeries in that area. Now the turn has come for other parts of the city to enjoy the same traditional family recipes. Under the banner of B Bagel, Alon has joined forces with Yoav to offer Londoners fresh bagels, bagel sandwiches, salads, breakfasts and great deli products.

A TASTE OF HOME, STRAIGHT OUTTA THE OVEN.