Last Thursday, Seattle’s premier bagel eatery opened its doors after hours for a bagel-making demonstration. Ravenna’s Bagel Oasis opened in 1988 and is now considered Seattle’s pioneer of traditional, boiled bagels with a slightly snappy crust and a delicious chewy interior. They pride themselves on their bialys, a mostly East Coast specialty and relative of the bagel, which have to be formed by hand. They offer myriad omelettes and sandwiches, as well as the standard bagels and cream cheese flavors.

Peter Ryan, Bagel Oasis’s owner, talked us through his philosophy of bagel making. Primary among his concerns? Treat the dough gently!

The mixer Ryan has kneads the dough slowly enough that it stays tender, before heading to the bagel-shaping machine. The shaping machine uses a series of gentle processes to cut the dough into pieces, roll it into logs, and fold it into that ubiquitous bagel shape.

As the bagels come off of the machines, one of the bakers stands by to finesse the shape (and toss those that come apart back onto the pile of dough to go through the machine again), and plop them on the baking sheets to rise. After rising, they get tossed into boiling water, topped with the appropriate topping, and baked in a hot and fiery oven. In this way, the kitchen cranks out 200to 300 dozen bagels a day.

Peter Ryan has always wanted to be involved with the community that supports his business. In fact, he just announced that he would be teaching a class on traditional boiled bagel making to students in FareStart’s adult culinary and job training program. To celebrate this collaboration, Bagel Oasis will donate five percent of its sales on October 24th to the nationally-recognized culinary job training and placement program for homeless and disadvantaged individuals.