Remembering Daniel Thompson, Winnipeg-born inventor of the bagel machine

You may not know him by name, but Daniel Thompson most likely had an influence on your life. He invented the first machine that made it possible to produce bagels on a mass scale.

Thompson died earlier this month in California. He was 94.

"The invention of this machine sort of democratized, in a certain way, the bagel. The bagel ceased being an identifiably Jewish food and really became an American food," Matthew Goodman, author of Jewish Food: The World at the Table, tells As it Happens host Carol Off.  

Thompson was born in Winnipeg on Jan. 21, 1921. His father, Meyer, was a bagel shop owner who, himself, tried to create an automated bagel making machine.

But, Meyer was unsuccessful. 

"The problem with Meyer's machine was that the bagels kept slipping and falling on the floor," says Goodman.

Thompson picked up where his father left off, and by the early 1960's, had created a machine that produced bagels at a rate of 2400 per hour. A talented inventor, Thompson is also responsible for creating the fold-up ping-pong table with wheels. 

Before Thompson's invention, bagels were only produced by a small group of bakers who were part of the International Beigel Bakers Union. 

"The bagel had come over with the mass Jewish migration," says Goodman. "And, these guys were making bagels in the traditional way that had come over from Eastern Europe."

But, this all changed with Thompson's invention.

"That bagel making technique that had been carefully preserved … was no longer necessary. And as a result of that, the union was broken very very quickly," says Goodman.

Thompson's invention also meant changing the way that bagels were made. 

"The traditional dough was too thick for the models ... Bagel bakers began to add water to the dough to thin it out to go through the machine -- creating a softer bagel," says Goodman. "Once it had been small, dense, chewy and flavourful. Today, in almost every case, it's large, pillowy, soft and flavourless -- a la wonder bread. It would be unrecognisable to the bagel bakers of the 1950's."

Despite this loss in quality, not everyone sees Thompson's invention negatively. 

"You know there are a lot of people, who are not purists, who would say this was a very very good thing," says Goodman. "Up until the invention of frozen bagels and the automated bagel making machine, you really couldn't get bagels outside of Jewish enclaves in the big cities."