Occasionally, via Google Alerts, I stumble onto a real gem of a story that shines a light on what people are talking about. My alert for “bagels” went haywire over the weekend thanks to Jewish food icon, Ina Garten. This new viral moment brought back memories of St. Louis Bread Co.’s viral challenge of bagel-slicing traditions.

“Ina’s Bagel ‘Hack’ Leaves Fans in a Whirl”

The Food Network recently unearthed a vintage clip from an episode of “The Barefoot Contessa,” featuring Garten assembling a pair of bagel sandwiches. The caption posed a provocative question: “Have you ever seen how Ina slices her bagels?!”

In the video, Garten kicks things off by divulging her unconventional bagel-slicing technique, advocating for dividing the bagels into thirds. She then demonstrates by making two horizontal cuts across the bagel, resulting in three evenly sized rounds.

@foodnetwork can you believe how Ina cuts her bagel?! #inagarten ♬ original sound – Food Network

The video quickly became the subject of online articles and criticism of Garten’s slicing style, eerily reminiscent of the 2019 kerfuffle involving the quirky culinary tradition from St. Louis Bread Co’s. (Panera) innovative approach to bagel sampling. As you may remember, Twitter erupted with opinions and memes when St. Louis native Alek Krautmann made this post:

Today I introduced my coworkers to the St Louis secret of ordering bagels bread sliced. It was a hit! pic.twitter.com/XNGbljtpYz

— Alek Krautmann (@AlekKrautmann) March 26, 2019

Bagel Backlash or Bagel Brilliance

As bagel aficionados criticized Krautmann, along with St. Louis Bread Co. and St. Louisans over slicing, Garten’s controversial bagel-hacking technique has sparked its own Instagram debates and Twitter tirades as foodies weigh in on the age-old question: How should one slice a bagel?

Luckily, the backlash was mostly based on misunderstanding Garten’s point, but once the food world has lost its collective mind, no one can bring it home. Still, I’ll try.

Basically, Garten’s point was if you cut two bagels into thirds, you can now enjoy three bagel sandwiches. The problem really was that in the video, you don’t see her cut the first bagel, and at the end, she ends up with three. This was too confusing for many. Many critics such as Zwilling USA’s TikTok account believed she was “wasting bagel” or making the bagel less doughy, but Garten is no bagel waster.

Food writer Robin Shreeves of All-Recipes.com wrote “She wastes no bagel, however, because she makes three cream cheese and smoked salmon sandwiches out of the two bagels. Her way creates a better sandwich filling to bread ratio. Ina’s way is a bit like creating a fresh version of store-bought bagel thins. If you’ve ever had the store-bought thins, they don’t always satisfy like a good, fresh bagel. But Ina’s version will.”

Slice and Sensibility