“Doughnuts are a mainstay. Frozen yogurt came and went, and gelato came and went. But everybody still loves doughnuts.” - Carolyn Tillie, Culinary Historian

These are the stories of three New York City doughnut makers. The differences between them are striking: each was born in a different part of the world, each learned doughnut-making differently, and each approached the baking business in a unique way. There was one thing they shared in common: a passion for creating innovative doughnuts. And each left in their wake brand new methods of producing and selling fried dough, indelibly changing the nation’s bakery industry.

The Mechanizer

Adolf Levitt was 8 years old when he and his family left Russia for the United States in 1853, settling in the midwest. His father died a year later, leaving a destitute widow with eight children. Adolf had to quit school at age 10 to scrape up pennies as a newspaper peddler. He opened a mercantile business with his brother, but that eventually failed. At age 37, broke, Adolf moved to New York City, where he got into the bakery business. 

His luck changed. Soldiers were returning from World War I with memories of the treats they had been served in the trenches by the “Doughnut Dollies.” Adolf began frying up doughnuts in his Harlem bakery, cooking small batches in a kettle (as all doughnuts were made at the time.) They were such a huge hit that he couldn’t keep up with the demand. So he decided to invent a machine that could make lots of doughnuts automatically.

Adolf partnered with an engineer, and they achieved eleven failures. Finally, their 12th attempt was a winner, destined for doughnut glory! Adolf named his new contraption “The Wonderful Almost Human Doughnut Machine.” In a brilliant marketing move, he placed the machine in his bakery’s window. Onlookers crowded the street, attracted by the dough rings being formed, dropping into hot oil, being flipped over, and sent rolling down a chute, all by the mechanical marvel. Newspapers touted the miraculous invention. Almost overnight, Adolf Levitt had become the doughnut king.

Not only did Adolf reap profits from his doughnut sales, but offers poured in from across the country for his amazing compact machine, which could turn out 1,000 perfect doughnuts an hour. He made and sold 128 doughnut makers in the first year, and also supplied a doughnut mix, the first prepared baking mix in America, amassing an incredible 25 million dollars.

But that was just the beginning of Adolf’s impact on the baking world. In 1931, he expanded his little bakery into the fondly-remembered Mayflower Coffee Shop, located in busy Times Square. Masses of onlookers crowded around the windows day and night, attracted by the hot doughnuts rolling out of the contraption, and by the enticing aroma which was blown by fans out to the street. Soon Mayflower Shops were opening in dozens of cities. At the height of the Great Depression, Adolf’s inexpensive baked goods helped feed the poorest and hungriest.

Adolf eventually formed the Doughnut Corporation of America, which created spectacular exhibitions at both the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair (where Adolf’s sinkers were dubbed “The Hit Food of the Century of Progress,”) and the 1939 New York World’s Fair, where they sold 20 million doughnuts! The Corporation also was first to contract the word doughnut into donut. Levitt even spearheaded a National Dunking Association to answer questions on the propriety of such an act (of course, they whole-heartedly approve it. As do I.)

Mayflower Coffee Shops with their miraculous doughnut-making machines became a national phenomenon which lasted for years, until coffee shops were replaced by fast food chains like Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme in the 1950s and 60s.

The Artisanista

It was into this world of Dunkins and Krispys that Mark Israel was born. Although his grandfather, who died when Mark was 3 years old, was a doughnut maker in North Carolina, the baking bug did not bite Mark until he was 30. He was then employed as a kitchen manager in New York City and hated the work. One day he visited his Dad, who shared one of Grandpa’s old doughnut recipes. It was a revelation.

Mark was a vegetarian, and the recipe did not contain eggs. He exclaimed, “Dad, this is great – it’s like a vegetarian doughnut! We gotta make them now!” His Dad had worked in his father’s bakery when he was a boy, and helped his son make the doughnuts. Mark, having grown up eating chain store doughnuts, took one bite and said “This is how doughnuts are supposed to taste!” He shared them with friends, who told him he should consider starting a baking business of his own.

Mark was unsure, until he walked into a Lower East Side coffee shop and asked if they would sell something he baked himself. They said yes, so he went home and whipped up a batch of doughnuts with a fresh raspberry glaze and delivered them. They sold out in a matter of hours, and the shop wanted more. Suddenly, Mark Israel was in the doughnut business.

After weeks of baking in his LES tenement apartment kitchen (his roommate complaining about the mess) Mark asked his landlord if there was a space where he could set up a baking operation. He was offered the boiler room in the basement, and it was there that Mark single-handedly invented the artisanal doughnuts he is famous for. That basement was his kitchen for five years. “I learned just by learning,” he explains, “the dough was teaching me every night.”

This is where Mark’s courage and tenacity kicked in. He had no compunction about walking straight into the city’s most famous gourmet shops, Balducci’s, Zabar’s and Dean & Deluca’s, and asking the managers to taste his unique doughnuts. They all signed purchase orders immediately. Mark would descend into the boiler room every night at 11:00 PM, bake until morning, then load up his bicycle’s baskets and deliver fresh batches to his growing customer base. Next, he’d peddle to the Union Square Farmer’s Market and buy the ingredients to make his next batch: organic milk, fresh fruits, nuts, etc. After cleaning up the bakery, he’d hit the sack at 8:00 PM and catch three hours of sleep before starting the process all over. He was a one-man bakery, carefully crafting each doughnut by hand, one at a time.

With financial help from his family, Mark opened his first public bakery, the Doughnut Plant, on Grand Street in 2000, which is still going strong. At first, it remained a one-man operation, until the business grew so big that his father helped fry them, then apprentices were hired. Each doughnut is still made by hand. Flavors include Tres Leches, Brooklyn Blackout Cake, Sour Doughnut, Crème Brûlée, Black-and-White, and his famous square jelly doughnuts (they can hold more jelly than round ones.) Ever the fanatic about freshness, Mark and his staff crack open coconuts, make homemade jam, and seed Madagascar vanilla beans. Mark now has five Doughnut Plants throughout the city, and nine in Japan.

The era of “artisanal” doughnuts had arrived, igniting a tidal wave of handmade doughnut shops...thanks to the inventiveness, determination, and crazy-hard work of Mark Israel.      

The Infatuator

Let’s compare Mark Israel’s basement doughnut test kitchen with the legendary pâtisserie Fauchon, in the center of Paris. That’s where Dominique Ansel began his career. He remained at this most exclusive pastry shop for eight years, before moving to New York City in 2006 to serve as Executive Pastry Chef at Daniel Boulud’s renowned restaurant Daniel. He helped the eatery earn three coveted Michelin stars and a four-star review in The New York Times.

From the beginning, Dominique loved the scientific nature and mathematical precision of pastry making. He aims for perfection of appearance, taste and aroma in everything he creates. A showcase of his bakery masterpieces is unforgettably dazzling, right down to the tiniest details. “There’s so much emotional connection I get from creating a story through pastry,” Dominique says, “making sure customers remember what they eat is very important to me.”

After leaving restaurant Daniel, he set up shop at the Dominique Ansel Bakery on a quiet, shady street in Soho in November, 2011. He started out with only four employees, serving both sweet and savory pastries, including made-to-order Madeleines. In no time at all, the popular little shop was declared Best Bakery by Time Out New York, and became Zagat’s highest-ranked NYC bakery.

So how did this classically trained French pâtissier come up with the most riotously popular food fad ever unleashed? It wasn’t by accident.

His Cronut took months and many different recipes to perfect. It’s not just a fried croissant. It’s made from a proprietary laminated dough, first proofed then fried at a specific temperature. Each Cronut is then rolled in sugar, filled with cream, and topped with glaze. The entire process takes three days to complete (“time is an ingredient” Dominique says.) The result is sort of like the French response to the all-American doughnut: delicately flaky and buttery, yet carryable and dunkable, if you dare. 

The Cronut was launched in May, 2013, with stratospheric repercussions to Dominque’s perfect little pastry world. On the day of its introduction, a single social media post garnered 140,000 links. Within days, visitors from around the world lined up for blocks around the bakery, rain or shine, as they still do today. Rules had to be posted to maintain crowd control. Folks were buying Cronuts and immediately offering them for sale on sites like Craig’s List for an 800% mark-up. Only 350 Cronuts were made every morning, selling out before most New Yorkers got out of bed. The world’s first viral pastry was born. 

The Cronut was named one of Time Magazine’s “25 Best Inventions of 2013.” Dominique was named “Best Pastry Chef in the U.S.” by the James Beard Awards. Copy-cat reproductions of the trend-setting treat were appearing everywhere, known as “clonuts”. Dominique was advised to “cash in” on the demand, and create Cronut shops and factories across the country and around the world.

The chef refused. Instead, he used the Cronut’s popularity to raise funds for ending hunger (he auctioned off 24 Cronuts for an incredible $100,000, donated to food pantries.) He also wanted to move forward creatively, inventing new treats like the Cookie Shot, Frozen S’mores, and Blossoming Hot Chocolate (all remain favorites today.) Dominique Ansel Kitchen opened in the West Village, and Dominique Ansel Workshop began in the Flatiron District, where young chefs produce exemplary croissants and pastries. He’s written two cookbooks, one of which actually contains the “secret” Cronut recipe. The “most fêted pastry chef in the world” has certainly handled his overnight mega-stardom with grace and generosity...  sharing with us lots of yummy goodness!

The creative energy of all three of these doughnut mavens has led to today’s mouth-watering selection of bakery delights. Their inventiveness, attention to detail, tenacity and heart continue to sweeten our lives.

Back to Doughnuts