15 hours at work with a bagel roller
It is dark. It’s 39 degrees outside. And it’s 2:40 AM
At a bus stop in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay neighborhood, Celestino García, dressed in a black puffer jacket, jeans, gray Skechers and a black North Face backpack, has already started his day.
Mr. García, 58, stretches his neck to look for bus B3, which will take him to the Avenue U metro station. He will then take the F train and head to his first workplace of the day, Court Street Bagels in Cobble Hill. There he rolls hundreds of bagels – by hand.
CC Allen, a supervising producer on the New York Times Cooking video team, and Gina Fernandez, an associate producer, followed Mr. García on this particular Friday in March for the first episode of the new season of “Working.” (The episode will be uploaded to YouTube Friday afternoon.) Presented by Priya Krishna, a reporter for Food and Cooking,”Workingtells the stories of some of the hardest-working people in the city: the largely invisible workforce that dictates what and how New Yorkers eat. Each episode lasts about 10 to 20 minutes and highlights a day in the life of someone like Mr. García, one of the city’s last bagel rollers.
Mr. García is used to the early call time. Six days of his week begin in the middle of the night. Members of The Times’ Food team found it a little harder to get out of bed, though it was worth it. The team likes to slowly introduce crew members to their subjects throughout the day of the shoot.
“These are not people who are usually in front of the camera,” Ms Allen said in an interview. “So if they have a camera in their face all day, we want to make them feel comfortable.”
Mrs. Krishna met the group at the bagel shop at 5:45 am. three stores where he works over the course of a 15-hour day. He zipped up his jacket and started his commute, the Times team in tow.
It was one of Mrs. the series began in January 2022.
“One thing about every person we track for ‘On the Job’ is that they do incredibly difficult work,” said Ms. Krishna. “And they believe their job isn’t hard.”
The six episodes of the series’ first two seasons have been viewed more than five million times. (The “How to feed NYC’s largest high schoolThe episode alone, in which Mrs. Krishna takes viewers inside the life of a Queens public school lunch chef, accounts for nearly two million of those.)
Episode scheduling begins months before filming. For each episode, a team of video producers interviews three or four potential subjects. They usually choose a job to focus on before finding a person to follow, Ms. Allen said.
Once the producers have identified the right person, they visit the site to answer any questions their subject may have and ask if there is anything – like secret recipes – that the person would rather not be filmed. Weeks in advance, the team members plan a shot list, broken down into about a dozen scenes, listing two to eight shots they hope to shoot for each.
But some of the best images are captured in moments they can’t predict.
In the last episode, that was a video of Mr. García’s bagel roll speed – Ms. Krishna timed it at 17 bagels per minute, or about 3.5 seconds per bagel.
“He’s like the Energizer Rabbit,” Ms. Krishna said as Mantai Chow, a cooking team videojournalist, zoomed in on Mr. García’s hands kneading the dough.
While Mr. García was working, Mrs. Krishna asked him in Spanish about his life, routine and passion for his work. Viewers have praised Ms. Krishna’s warm, easygoing demeanor and frequent use of Spanish – one of the four languages she speaks – for putting her subjects at ease. (Estefania Valencia, a translator, was also on set.)
“It helps me build rapport,” said Ms. Krishna, noting that Spanish is often the first language of the employees she speaks, many of whom, like Mr. García, are immigrants.
Mr. García rolled 1,700 bagels in four hours, just over an hour ahead of schedule. (It took nine 50-pound sacks of flour.) Mrs. Krishna joined him on his six-block walk to his next and final stop, another location of Tompkins Square Bagels. She likes to get a sense of someone’s whole day to really understand what the job entails.
Mrs. Allen and Mr. Chow, with cameras over their shoulders, positioned themselves outside the store’s front door to record the exit. But when Mr. García and Mrs. Krishna got out, a bus stopped in front, blocking Mr. Chow’s view.
“Can you do that again?” cried Mrs. Allen. “We’re having some bus disruption.”
After Mrs. Krishna and an amused Mr. García left the store again, Mrs. Allen followed them as they hurried – Mr. García knows no other pace – to the next location. Inside, he went down the stairs to the cellar, where he put on a black apron. The scent of cinnamon wafted through the room.
“New location, new energy,” he said.
Mrs. Krishna, sitting on an overturned white bucket, looked at the camera and gave her own verdict. “Can’t say I have the same zest in my step,” she said as Mr. García began mixing the dough for a batch of bright yellow French toast. He had been working all day, but still seemed as positive as when he started.
After a shoot is complete, Ms. Allen’s team will review the footage, mix camera angles and add music, subtitles and spoken commentary. The process can be long and tedious. For example, the final 15-minute episode about Mr. Garcia took over a month to edit.
“Maybe as an editor you hate overshooting,” Ms. Allen said. “But it’s worth capturing those precious moments that tell the real true story of the person.”
The team has five more episodes planned for the third season, which it hopes to release about every other month. That probably means five more very early alarms.
“But it’s worth it,” said Mrs. Krishna. “It’s the only way to get a glimpse into the process.”