The Baker |
My name is Curt Henderson. In high school I made bagels at Budka's Bagels in Greenville, South Carolina. The owner of the store, John Budka, was a transplanted New Yorker. He taught me how to make bagels from scratch. I continued making bagels at the local bagel shop while in college at Clemson University. Since working in these shops, I have wanted to own a bagel shop. However, I always planned to open it once my kids were grown, currently four of them ages 7 years old and younger.
|
History |
My wife, Becky, would see my eyes light up any time someone would ask me about making bagels. In February 2016, she encouraged me to figure out how to make bagels out of our home kitchen. So I did! Without commercial equipment, I tested various methods and recipes to make bagels by hand while my friends and family acted as guinea pigs providing me feedback.
After a couple months of tweaking the process, a native New Yorker asked if I took orders after tasting one I gave out at a local, free, weekly 5k called parkrun. He said it was the best bagel he'd had in the 3 years since he moved down to Clermont, FL from New York...the best compliment a bagel maker could receive! John provided that extra push I needed to take the next step. As a follower of Christ, the mission is simple: "Love Your Neighbor". Part of that is providing a portion of the proceeds to some of the great nonprofits that help those less fortunate than ourselves. Part of that means baking bagels for my neighbors which may be literally or nonprofits or food pantries. Making bagels is an activity I enjoy but the "why" is loving my neighbors. |