“Russ & Daughters has been on the market almost 110 years. The work here differs from what I did back in Ukraine–everything is on a bigger scale.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with baker Vita Sechin at Russ & Daughters in New York. One of the oldest bagel shops in NYC and producing about 400 dozen bagels a day, Russ & Daughters is one of the city’s most popular spots.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I started working at Rasen Daughters about a year ago,
00:05when the war broke out in Ukraine.
00:08So that my children and family were safe, we came here to New York.
00:14Rasen Daughters has been on the market for about 110 years.
00:18The work here is different from the work I did at home.
00:23Here we prepare everything on a large scale.
00:26We make about 80 bagels a day, and we leave a lot of time.
00:37Hi, my name is Vita, I am a baker here at Rasen Daughters,
00:41and I invite you to work with me today.
00:45I need to prepare the dough for our bagels, which we will bake tomorrow.
00:49Only the boys and I work at our bakery.
00:54We start with the flour.
00:56We have 50 pounds of flour for one portion of bagels.
01:00We add fresh yeast and reddish sponge flour to the flour.
01:05For bagels, we use fresh yeast, so that the bagels grow quickly,
01:09have bubbles in the middle and have an elastic dough.
01:13We add sugar here, we also add malt syrup.
01:19Now for the bagels, we use pre-ferment.
01:23These are the bagels we made yesterday.
01:25It is resistant.
01:27We add it to our dough.
01:30This makes the dough fit well, quickly fit well in the proofing room.
01:36I have a different job every day.
01:39I make bagels or bake bagels.
01:42We exchange with our team.
01:45I know English.
01:47It's hard for me to speak.
01:49I studied English at school, but I never used it.
01:53My eldest daughter studied English in Ukraine.
01:57Her English is free, she always helps me.
02:00Sometimes she doesn't want to, but she has to.
02:03She said that she has a daughter that helps her with translation.
02:09I always say, I'm your mother, you listen to me.
02:15I have experienced terrible moments.
02:18It is very scary to close the door of your apartment
02:22and take in two hands only your two children.
02:29This is a completely new language, a new culture, new people.
02:33It was difficult for us to find an apartment.
02:35It was difficult for us to find a job.
02:37But we did it.
02:39We are moving forward.
02:41When I came here, I learned everything.
02:43At first, I was very scared, because there are big cars.
02:46We see that we need to add salt.
02:49As we know, salt slows down the reaction of yeast.
02:53It stabilizes the growth of yeast.
02:58Here we have corn flour.
03:03From 50 pounds of flour, we get about 9 bagels.
03:08Now we see that our dough has formed well.
03:13It separates beautifully.
03:16We will check if our dough is ready.
03:20To do this, we take a piece and stretch it.
03:24We see if we have a beautiful elastic dough ball.
03:29Our dough is ready.
03:32But now I need help.
03:35We put our dough on the table.
03:38We distribute it.
03:40And sprinkle a little with flour.
03:43Yes, yes, in America I will become strong.
03:47In all aspects, physically and morally.
03:51While our dough is resting,
03:54we can go and form our bagels.
03:58For this, we have such a machine.
04:00We cut off a plate the width of my palm.
04:04We stretch it.
04:06Not very much.
04:08And we put it here.
04:10This is a special machine that forms bagels.
04:13Here we have knives that cut our dough into appropriate strips.
04:18We take one piece and check its weight.
04:22So that everyone is equal.
04:25And from here, the strip passes under the press,
04:28and here a circle is formed.
04:34This is our supervisor.
04:36This is probably my first friend.
04:39When I came to work, I was attached to him.
04:42He taught me this.
04:44Told, showed.
04:46Two people should always work.
04:49Because the dough is cut quickly.
04:52And bagels need to be folded quickly.
04:55This is very difficult.
04:57We speak different languages.
05:00Antonia speaks English.
05:02But I also learn Spanish.
05:05Spanish is faster than English for me.
05:11In New York, only my husband and my two daughters.
05:16But we have friends.
05:19These people who work here with me,
05:21Eurasian Daughters, are all my friends.
05:25Everything is ready here.
05:27We turn off our machine.
05:29And we need to put our bagels in the proof room.
05:33In order for them to grow, we need molds.
05:37We have a proof room.
05:39We have the appropriate temperature and humidity.
05:43In order for our yeast to activate,
05:46and our bagels to become fluffy.
05:49We set the time.
05:51Our bagels stay in the proof room.
05:53Tomorrow we will bake them.
05:58And now we go to the fridge,
06:00where our bagels stand.
06:02Here they stop growing,
06:04cool down, ferment.
06:07We go to bake our bagels.
06:10We cook bagels in 24 hours.
06:13Because they should stand well.
06:16Here in our pot there is hot water.
06:20Here we add a little salt.
06:22In order for our bagels to have a nice golden crust.
06:26We put our bagels here for one minute,
06:30so that they warm up.
06:32We mix it well.
06:34We see that our bagels have risen up.
06:38We wet our brushes
06:40so that steam forms in our oven.
06:44We lift it up and put it on the brushes.
06:48This is a wooden brush,
06:50which is coated with natural fabric
06:53so that the bagel does not stick.
06:55My friend put the bagels in the oven before.
06:59And now I need to turn them over.
07:02First, because we have shelves that are wrapped.
07:06And so our bagels go around in hot air.
07:10Not only from above,
07:12but the whole bagel is completely baked.
07:15We take the brush, turn them over.
07:19These bagels are ready.
07:21And we take them out.
07:23For the sake of beauty,
07:25we have a beautiful golden crust.
07:28Here in the bakery we have 5 people working.
07:32When someone puts them,
07:34another can turn them over
07:36or take them out of the oven.
07:38We lower and turn them over.
07:41These are plain bagels.
07:43There are no such traditional bagels in Ukraine.
07:46I tried bagels for the first time when I came to New York.
07:51Although bagels came to us from Poland.
07:54Poland is located near Ukraine,
07:57near our region, where we came from.
08:01But we don't have it.
08:03The most popular bagels are plain bagels
08:06with everything on them.
08:08And now we will prepare them.
08:10We sprinkle our wet brushes
08:12so that they stick well to the wet bagel.
08:16At home I also did baking,
08:19but a little differently.
08:22I made cakes, desserts, cupcakes.
08:26It was my hobby.
08:28I am a manager-economist by profession.
08:31I worked for a large company.
08:33But when my second child was born,
08:36my hobby slowly turned into my small profession.
08:40We have three dozen bagels on one rack.
08:44Rasendoters is a company founded by a Polish immigrant
08:49who has been working in New York for 110 years.
08:55It is one of the first businesses in the United States
09:00named after a father and a daughter.
09:06Now we sprinkle them on the other side with our raisins.
09:12We open our oven.
09:15Each time we clean our shelf from the raisins,
09:19because the raisins remain.
09:21Yes, I love my job.
09:24This is my first job in New York,
09:26which was very difficult to find.
09:29When I came to New York,
09:32since my English was not very good,
09:35I went to the Riverside School
09:39to learn a little English.
09:42At the Riverside School, I took extra classes
09:45on interviewing for a job,
09:49on making resumes.
09:51And so I found my job.
09:54I never thought I would live in New York.
09:58Even in my most mysterious dreams it did not happen.
10:03One day we woke up.
10:05I opened my Facebook and read.
10:07Unfortunately, friends, this is war.
10:09War is very scary in the modern world.
10:13You see, our bagels grow,
10:16become beautiful, fluffy, smooth, elastic.
10:21New York
10:27That's all for today.
10:29I'm done.
10:30Thank you for visiting me today,
10:32for spending this day with me.
10:34I was very pleased.
10:36And today, bye-bye, see you.
10:39I have a cake, my cake.
10:42This is for all of us.
10:45My signature meringue roll.
10:49Thank you for your help.
10:51Thank you too.
10:52You got the biggest piece.