Mendel Glick has been baking authentic boiled bagels at his Melbourne store since the 1950s. The story of how he began is quite amazing. During the war he spent five and a half years in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. On liberation he began working for the American soldiers... in a little bakery.

‘I loved it so much, that job. And the greatest thing from the whole time was to start to make the bagels. I made little horseshoes too and different kinds of long little rolls. Everything small. The bagels ... we proved them, mixed them, rolled them, boiled them... the I put them on trays and I baked them. Little ovens. It was beautiful. And I always wished to myself that I could have a shop with bagels.

‘I learned with the American soldiers - the way the bagel is different from anything else because when you boil the bagels, the starch dissolves in the pot. Starch is not good for people. That’s why it is more healthy for the people to eat the bagels boiled. And they’re delicious, crispy outside but very soft inside because the dough has been boiled . The heat from the oven makes them crispy. and it gives them the taste from the honey and salt.’

He came to Australia after the war and slowly built up his Melbourne business to the thriving enterprise it is today. If you think bagels in Melbourne, you can’t help thinking Glicks.

‘This my life,’ says Mr Glick. ‘ Never read the papers because I can’t. Never been to school. Taken away young. And I can’t read or write. But I am so good for my things. I have work and I love it so much. Nobody in this world can beat me in this love for working. I don’t want to go home. I’m never tired.’