{"id":87136,"date":"2025-04-05T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T01:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=87136"},"modified":"2025-04-05T11:38:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T16:38:14","slug":"texas-bakery-reportedly-becomes-first-bagel-shop-to-be-named-james-beard-award-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/texas-bakery-reportedly-becomes-first-bagel-shop-to-be-named-james-beard-award-finalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas bakery reportedly becomes first bagel shop to be named James Beard Award finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By GRACE GILSON<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 A bagel shop in Texas has been named a finalist for the 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards, reportedly making it the first purveyor of the classic Jewish food to be shortlisted for the coveted culinary prize.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_87137\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87137\" class=\"wp-image-87137 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87137\" class=\"wp-image-87137 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BAGELS_screenshop-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-87137\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some of Starship Bagel&#8217;s fare. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Starship Bagel, which has locations in Dallas and the nearby suburb of Lewisville, is one of five finalists in the category titled \u201cOutstanding Bakery.\u201d Sam Silverman, a popular bagel influencer, said Starship is the first bagel maker to be a finalist.<\/p>\n<p>Bagel enthusiasts might be surprised to discover that a shop in Texas, rather than New York, could be poised to bring unprecedented acclaim to the toric delicacy. But in a sense, that was the point: Starship was founded in 2021 by Jewish owner Oren Salomon in order to bring New York-style bagels to the Lone Star state, according to Bon Appetit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA bagel is not sandwich bread,\u201d Salomon told Bon Appetit. \u201cIt\u2019s the main attraction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an Instagram post thanking his team, family and community for their support, Salomon called the nomination a \u201cdream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re humbled, inspired, and more committed than ever to bringing you the best bagels possible,\u201d wrote Salomon, whose shop did not respond to calls for comment. \u201cHere\u2019s to chasing dreams and spreading love, one bagel at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The shop employs techniques intended to set its fare apart from the everyday roll-with-a-hole.&nbsp; Starship bakes its bagels on a bagel board, an old-school method that employs a wooden board wrapped with soaked burlap, according to Bon Appetit. The bagels are also made using malt syrup, a more difficult method that Salomon nonetheless deemed essential.<\/p>\n<p>The result has brought Starship Bagel awards and acclaim across the country.<\/p>\n<p>The business earned the accolade of \u201cBest Bagel\u201d at the 2023 New York Bagelfest. In 2024, the shop took home the festival\u2019s prize for \u201cSchmear of the Year\u201d and was a runner-up for best bagel. The festival\u2019s website does not indicate which schmear, specifically, won the award.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Although Starship is the first restaurant of its kind to make the finals in its category, other Jewish chefs have won a James Beard Foundation Award in the past.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Zahav, an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia that was founded by celebrity chefs Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook, won the James Beard Foundation award for outstanding restaurant. One year earlier, Jewish chef Michael Twitty won the James Beard prize for book of the year for \u201cThe Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The winners of this year\u2019s James Beard Foundation awards will be revealed on June 16.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Texas%20bakery%20reportedly%20becomes%20first%20bagel%20shop%20to%20be%20named%20James%20Beard%20Award%20finalist\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":87137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7138,25],"tags":[14560,4420,14562,8790,14563,8788,14561],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87138,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87136\/revisions\/87138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}