Bagels, bread, babka and matzo balls star at TV chef Ed Halmagyi’s new bakery
On a sunny afternoon at Avner’s, a three month-old Eastern European bakery in Surry Hills run by former TV chef Ed Halmagyi, the handmade brown sugar-topped bagels and dark, fluted, citrus and bush honey cake gleam from the front counter.
Beyond, plain, sesame seed, cinnamon and chocolate bagels, all shaped slightly differently, are stacked neatly. To their left, flour-dusted roasted potato bread, Transylvanian rye and gluten-free loaves, some shaped like oversized pinto beans or batwing bowties, stand upright in wire racks.
Their competition is fierce. Lush chocolate cheesecake, golden coconut macaroons, chubby techina (Hebrew for tahini) biscuits, halva brownies and bevelled pressed gingerbread.
Pastrami bagel.
There is plump triple-chocolate babka, glistening pistachio syrup cake and Nutella-rich rugelach pastry, the latter crescent-shaped, icing sugar dusted and reminiscent of a croissant. All are beautiful.
In the case of the gingerbread, techina biscuit and honey cake, they defy expectations in levels of sweetness (subtle not sickly) and denseness (food to linger on rather than scoff). Dunking the gingerbread in coffee is marvellous stuff.
But, it’s the bagels and loaves that truly rule. The potato bread, solid, earthy and fragrant with ground bay leaves is a heady marvel. Toast it and drench with butter.
The bagels, handmade after a three-day fermentation process, come alone or loaded with house-smoked lox, pastrami (handmade smoked beef girello) or whitefish mixed with onion, mayonnaise and dill. They are soft but chewy, sturdy but perfectly yielding.
Those queuing are greeted by staff members weighing, cutting and shaping dough at a large wooden table in the open kitchen framed by dough mixers, handwritten production schedules and bowls of fermenting dough.
Avner’s, named after Halmagyi’s Hebrew name, and instilled with recipes and cooking stories from his Hungarian-Jewish family and culture, can elicit impassioned customer cooking confabs.
Last week, a woman took Halmagyi aside. It was his matzo ball soup, served here as a light chicken broth with dense matzo dumplings, carrots, celery and shredded chicken.
“She was so infuriated,” Halmagyi says. “My matzo balls were not as fluffy and delicate as hers, my soup isn’t as rich and tasty.
Pistachio syrup cake.
“It was quite literally the best moment I’ve had awake. Because here is someone so invested in our culture, just as I am, that they drove over from Rose Bay to express themselves and how they feel about it.
“It’s just absolutely beautiful. And the only answer you can have to that is, ‘I clearly have something to learn from you.’”
Next week, she is returning to lunch with Halmagyi and teach him her way with matzo balls.
“I am completely committed to the concept of hospitality,” he says. “By having a completely open kitchen it also reminds people there are no secrets. Do you want to learn to cook these things yourself? Come on in, we’ll show you exactly how it’s done.
“Some of the things we do are quite complicated, and there’s a lot of hard-earned knowledge involved, but I don’t believe any of us actually own this information.
Chocolate babka.
“We’re just custodians of it and, the more people doing great baking, and, in my opinion, great Jewish baking, the better. It enriches everybody.”
Halmagyi, who spent two decades working in the TV industry, most particularly with Seven lifestyle series Better Homes and Gardens, says his first job was as a baker.
“I was, I think the technical term is, a shit of a child,” he says. “When I was 14 my dad made me go out and get a job purely for something to do and maybe get some discipline. Out of good fortune, I found my tribe in a kitchen, in a Neutral Bay bakery.”
It is well worth striking up a conversation with Halmagyi in situ. His knowledge of cooking techniques, the development of ingredients and the history of food, whether Jewish or not, is huge.
He’ll also take a punt on anyone with curiosity and chutzpah – almost every staff member was trained on the job. “I’m completely focused on trying to create something beautiful and welcoming and hospitable and local here,” he says. “So, come on in and have a chat.”