About Bishopston Bagels Bristol

Origin

Freshly baked bagels felt like a bit of an enigma in Bristol. I was hard pressed to find a fresh bagel in one of the plentiful and quality bakeries. Superb bread, sure - bagels not so much.

I think it's universally agreed with any bread product nothing beats a warm freshly baked dough. Shop bought bagels just weren't cutting it anymore.

So, as these things usually go, the "how hard can it be" thought popped into mind and I started making my own. After a few goes and some learning curves the natural progression became, "I can't be the only one wanting a fresh bagel, would people buy these?..".

And lo and behold they did. Bishopston Bagels was born!

About me

Ethos

Starting a food business induced some thought provoking questions in me. Food is obviously a necessity in our daily lives, but how and what we consume is a minefield of complexity, dilemma and trade offs. I felt it deserved some attention if entering the food production space.

Food and food systems have long been going down a somewhat worrying path -from the way we farm and value farmers to the reduction in quality and nutrition of food, and the move towards a more processed way of eating. We are all guilty (myself included) of not giving much thought to where food comes from, how it grows and who grows it. For us in the UK it's mostly always there, it doesn't feel like much thought needs to go into it.

It felt important for me to enter the food space consciously and try my best to have a positive and thoughtful contribution in a variety of ways. This includes using organic flours exclusively and buying organic when possible. Making sandwich fillings from scratch to reduce the amount of processed foods used, buying from other local food businesses to help the local food community and deliver by means of bicycle and foot whenever possible.

Like anything in life there are always trade offs with decisions. However, I am constantly reviewing and looking at how I can provide both the best product and the best way of producing the product.

Interestingly enough I'm not a baker by trade. Just a person who loves a bagel and enough will power to start a bagel business. However, I have worked in the hospitality industry for most of my working life and its something I seem to gravitate to. Providing people with food and drink is something that just makes sense to me!