NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Hyderabad/Austin, August 20, 2026: New York has long set the standard for what a bagel should be. Now, a two-year-old startup from Hyderabad is heading to the city to see whether an India-born bagel can compete on its home turf.
Bagel Brigade, founded in Hyderabad in 2024, has been selected to compete at New York BagelFest 2026 on November 15, joining more than 25 bagel makers from around the world.
The company says it is the only India-born brand in the announced lineup and the only announced entrant from Asia. According to Bagel Brigade, fewer than 9 percent of applicants made the final cut this year.
That makes the trip to New York an unusual reversal of the familiar global food story. Instead of an American food chain bringing an iconic New York staple to India, an Indian startup is taking its own interpretation of the bagel back to the city most closely associated with it.
Presented by King Arthur Baking Company, New York BagelFest brings together bagel makers and food businesses for a celebration — and competition — centered on one of New York’s signature foods.
For Bagel Brigade co-founders Sharath Chandra Reddy Gattu and Dr. Navya Chambalon, making the cut is an opportunity to test a food concept developed in Hyderabad against established international players.
“New York is where bagel culture has set the global benchmark for generations,” the co-founders said. “To be selected in a year where fewer than 9% of applicants made the cut is a proud moment for our team and for a brand born in India.”
Bagel Brigade has built its menu around kettle-boiled sourdough bagels, cream cheese cultured in-house over three days, protein-forward fillings and beverages. The company says its cream cheese is made without gums or preservatives.
But the founders are betting on more than the novelty of making bagels in Hyderabad.
The company describes its concept as “Morning Fuel” — a portable first meal intended to combine freshness and nutrition with the speed and consistency of a quick-service restaurant. The bagel, in that model, serves as a versatile base that can accommodate different fillings while remaining easy to carry and relatively quick to serve.
“We chose the bagel because it gives us the ability to bring quality, satiety, portability and speed together in one system,” Gattu and Chambalon said.
The company’s ambitions have already moved beyond Hyderabad and India. Bagel Brigade has expanded its presence to Austin, Texas, and is preparing to enter Singapore as its next international market.
That trajectory makes its appearance at BagelFest about more than whether New Yorkers will approve of an Indian-made bagel. It is also a test of whether a food concept developed in India around an unmistakably American product can become an international consumer brand.
Indian entrepreneurs have long brought Indian foods and restaurant concepts to overseas markets. Bagel Brigade is attempting something different: taking a food deeply rooted in another country’s culinary culture, developing its own version in India and then competing with it internationally.
The founders make no secret of their ambitions in New York.
“We are not going to New York simply to participate,” they said. “We are going to compete.”
Come November, that claim will face perhaps its most fitting test — in the city where generations of bakers have made the bagel their own.
