To expand the production of her wildly popular West Coast bagel empire, Emily Winston \u201900 drew on her engineering acumen\u2014and an industrial-sized robotic arm. In March 2023, Winston\u2019s Boichik Bagels<\/a> opened a new, 18,000-square-foot production facility in Berkeley, CA, that boasts an automated dough production line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winston, who worked for General Motors before pursuing a passion for baking, designed the complex operation\u2014integrating and modifying devices made by three manufacturers. Getting the equipment and systems to communicate effectively was a long process of debugging and tweaking, Winston says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe first time we turned on both parts of the line,\u201d she recalls, \u201cit basically threw dough all over the floor.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the process is smooth and synchronized. It begins with a giant mixer and lift that makes and transfers 500-pound batches of dough into a large hopper. <\/p>\n<\/div> Then an automated industrial baking system takes over and portions, cuts, and pumps out the bagels onto the moving production lines. The rows of traveling bagels are swiftly lined up on proofing boards\u2014and that\u2019s when Baker-Bot, a robotic arm with a six-foot reach, swings into action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Produced by a robotics firm and customized for Winston, the arm transfers the boards (bearing two dozen bagels each) onto tall racks, sensing the next open slots and stacking the trays quickly and precisely. The doughy treats then head to refrigerators to proof overnight before being baked the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first time we turned on both parts of the line, it basically threw dough all over the floor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The entire operation is deftly choreographed and unfolds with impressive speed, with Boichik employees supervising and making small adjustments as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the facility reaches full operation, Winston says, it should produce 12,000 bagels an hour\u2014a tenfold increase over the company\u2019s previous numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe now have the capacity to support as many retail stores as we could possibly want,\u201d she says. \u201cI built this with room to run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winston\u2019s dedication to a quality New York bagel goes back to her childhood in suburban New Jersey\u2014so when she moved to California about five years ago, she found herself echoing many East Coast transplants in bemoaning the lack of good bagels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe one I wanted\u2014the one I was so inspired by, my most beloved bagel\u2014was from H&H, next to Zabar\u2019s on the Upper West Side,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She and her father would make regular trips into the city to visit the famed side-by-side Manhattan bakery and appetizing counter, where they\u2019d pick up bagels, cream cheese, lox, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Says Winston: \u201cWhen I learned that H&H had shut down in 2011, I was devastated, thinking, \u2018I\u2019m never going to have that bagel ever again.\u2019 So I set out to recreate it for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winston began what she describes as \u201ca deeply obsessive hobby,\u201d trying to replicate that H&H bagel in her kitchen using an eight-quart stand mixer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you get anywhere in that bullseye, you can have that \u2018Proustian madeleine moment,\u2019 where people say, \u2018Oh my god, this takes me back,\u2019\u201d she observes. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the food; it\u2019s all of these emotions and memories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winston\u2019s dedication to a quality New York bagel goes back to her childhood in suburban New Jersey.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n After five years of trial and error, Winston says, she landed on a bagel that was \u201cpretty awesome.\u201d She began selling them out of her home before opening her first shop in Berkeley in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Boichik Bagels had arrived. And the company\u2019s cheeky slogan, printed on all its bags, makes that clear: \u201cThere are no good bagels in California,\u201d it proclaims\u2014though a bold red \u201cw\u201d has been jotted after the \u201cno,\u201d so it reads \u201cnow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winston\u2019s New York-style bagels became a California sensation; the San Francisco Eater<\/em> dubbed her a \u201cdarling of the West Coast bagel world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in what may be bagel heresy, a 2021 New York Times<\/em> column<\/a> that praised Boichik was headlined \u201cThe Best Bagels Are in California (Sorry, New York).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/04\/IMG_1761-A-819x1024.jpg\")
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