Blends by Orly: Reinventing Gluten-Free Baking 

For over a decade, Orly Gottesman has been at the forefront of gluten-free innovation, first with Blends by Orly — a revolutionary line of gluten-free flours — and now with Modern Bread and Bagel, a rapidly expanding chain of gluten-free bakeries and cafés. Recognizing that a one-size-fits-all approach to gluten-free baking didn’t work, Orly developed specialized flour blends designed to replicate the taste and texture of traditional baked goods. 

In 2019 when she opened Modern Bread and Bagel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, offering fresh, handcrafted gluten-free bagels, breads, and pastries. Today, with six locations across New York and Los Angeles, the brand continues to grow. Recently, Orly transitioned from selling gluten-free flour to launching a line of easy-to-use baking mixes under the Modern Bread and Bagel name. In this interview, she shares insights into her journey, product evolution, and the role of OU Kosher certification in her success. 

From Blends by Orly to Modern Bread and Bagel 

OU Kosher: Can you tell us about the origins of Blends by Orly and how your journey in gluten-free baking began? 

Orly Gottesman: Sure! Back in 2014, I launched Blends by Orly, a line of gluten-free flours that were purpose-driven. Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all all-purpose flour, I created different blends tailored to specific baking applications — one for cookies, another for cakes, one for bread, and one for pastries. Each was designed as a one-to-one replacement for wheat flour in those recipes, solving the common issues of gluten-free baking, like cakes being too dense or bread falling apart. 

OU Kosher: What led you to open Modern Bread and Bagel? 

Orly Gottesman: In 2019, I opened Modern Bread and Bagel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At the time, Blends by Orly was both a retail and food service product, and we supplied many bakeries, restaurants, and caterers with gluten-free flour. But I wanted to create a place where people could experience high-quality gluten-free baking firsthand. 

Today, Modern Bread and Bagel has six locations—three in New York City and three in Los Angeles. Everything we make, from bagels and bread to cookies and pastries, is made using Blends by Orly flour. It became clear that while the food service flour was a success, the retail flour was too niche. Customers wanted convenience—something they could bake easily at home rather than from scratch. 

“We learned that for the average customer, they want easy. They don’t want to bake from scratch with flour.
They want something that’s either ready-made or just requires a few simple ingredients.” 

The Shift to Baking Mixes 

OU Kosher: You recently discontinued Blends by Orly as a retail product. Can you explain the transition? 

Orly Gottesman: Over the past year, I made the decision to discontinue selling Blends by Orly as a retail flour and relaunch it under the Modern Bread and Bagel brand—this time as a line of baking mixes. I realized that consumers didn’t necessarily want to buy specialty flour and bake from scratch; they wanted a product that was simple and easy to use. 

So instead of selling flour, we now offer ready-to-use gluten free baking mixes—chocolate chip cookie mix, double chocolate zucchini cake mix, challah and brioche mix, vanilla cake and cupcake mix, and a paleo pancake and waffle mix (the only nut free paleo pancake mix on the market). These mixes are based on some of our bestsellers at Modern Bread and Bagel. Now, instead of buying flour and figuring out the recipe, customers can just add a couple of ingredients and get perfect results every time. 

OU Kosher: How has the change in branding helped your business? 

Orly Gottesman: When customers came into Modern Bread and Bagel, they saw Blends by Orly and didn’t understand the connection. Rebranding under Modern Bread and Bagel created more cohesiveness. Now, when people buy our products, they immediately recognize the brand from our restaurants and associate it with quality gluten-free baking. 

Gluten-Free and Kosher: A Growing Market 

OU Kosher: How has the gluten-free market evolved over the years, and where do you see it heading? 

Orly Gottesman: The demand is growing every year and becoming more mainstream. More people are being diagnosed with gluten intolerances, sensitivities, or other health conditions that require them to avoid gluten. There’s also a larger movement toward avoiding inflammatory foods, including gluten and dairy. That’s why we’ve seen such success in this space. 

OU Kosher: How does being OU Kosher-certified fit into your business model? 

Orly Gottesman: About 20% of our customers at Modern Bread and Bagel keep kosher. While most of our customers are coming in for gluten-free products rather than kosher certification, being certified is important to me on a personal level, both because I observe kosher and because our mission is to make our products accessible to everyone with every kind of dietary restriction. 

On the retail side, our kosher distributor requires both the OU certification and an additional certification, the CRC, to sell in kosher markets. So having the OU certification has definitely helped us reach more consumers, both in stores and online. 

“We’re hoping that by switching the branding to Modern Bread and Bagel,
it will be easier for us to have success with the brand—especially in the gluten-free market, where we’re already well known.” 

OU Kosher: As the gluten-free market expands, how are you positioning your brand for greater retail presence, and what challenges do you see in scaling distribution? 

Orly Gottesman: Yes! That’s one of our big goals. Right now, we sell our mixes in Modern Bread and Bagel locations, our ecommerce website, Amazon.com and Walmart.com, as well as a few independent grocery stores and kosher markets in the Northeast. But in 2025, we’re focusing on getting into larger retail chains. 

Retail placement takes time because grocery stores have strict category review periods, so we’re working on getting into more gluten-free baking sections as those opportunities open up, but we have some exciting meetings coming up over the next few months that I hope will lead to some new exciting placements 

https://blendsbyorly.com/