Photograph by Adam Kuban

For foods whose reputation is tied to a certain place—New York bagels, New York (or, depending on loyalties, Neapolitan) pizza—it's often said that the secret is in the water. With so few ingredients, many of which can be replicated exactly, the critical difference must be in that area's water supply, whose composition couldn't be quite the same anywhere else.

Or could it? Taking this theory perhaps a bit too literally, one Florida bagel maker decided to go after that theory for himself: He's recreating Brooklyn water in his own kitchen. Steve Fassberg of Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. in Delray Beach, Florida, analyzed the exact chemical composition of Brooklyn tap water and replicated its mineral content, for water that, he claims, makes all the difference in his bagels. "We took this myth and proved the science," he told the Miami Herald. No reported taste-tests yet.