Best Baguette in Paris Contest

I have written before about the seriousness Parisians maintain about their beloved baguette.  The city of Paris puts on a contest each year to find the best baguette each year.

Contests such as these may uncover some of the city’s talented bakers, who in the past were not known. It can not be described as completely definitive either, because there are many as of yet undiscovered bakers who for whatever reason did not make into the finals.

An artisanal bread baker works each day delivering a product that can vary from day-to-day in so far as taste and quality, even if he uses the same recipe.  This is because air temperature, yeasts and humidity change each day, therefore the baker has to take all of this into account and change rising and baking accordingly each day.

The variability of bread and the difficulty of consistent excellence was learned from talking to the baking professors at Ferrandi, L’Ecole Francaise de la Gastronomie here in Paris, where my son attended cooking school.

They have their own baking and pastry school, producing talented young bakers  who follow a two and three year program.  Most young bakers have been formally schooled, but apprenticeship is still possible, but much less so than before.

So as you can imagine, some degree of luck is  required to  win.  Great gifted bakers will consistently produce excellent bread every day, but may not always have the ultimate best daily.

What is most important is the quality of flours used in making the bread, the yeasts and and of course the savoir faire or experience the baker has.   Forget about making good bread with ordinary or inferior flours, such as you find in industrial baking.

Traditional baguettes are made only with flour, water, yeast and salt.  Very few if any additives are allowed.  Country type breads may use different grain flours, with whole seeds and cereals added, but these are not baguettes.  Same for flavored breads with fruits, nuts, or olives.

This year’s contest took place the last week in April.    It all takes place at the Chambre  Professionnelles des Artisans Boulangers-Patissiers on Ile Saint Louis.

This year there were 204 baguettes submitted.  In order to quality to even make it to the tasting table, each baguette must weigh between 250 and 300 grams, be 55 to 65 cm long and have not more than 18 grams of salt per kilo of flour.

Because the French don’t play around when it comes to bread,  more than a quarter are eliminated from the contest, because they did not meet the above strict criteria.   The reason the level of salt must be restricted is because salt can mask the quality of flours used.

The jury is composed of 15 people.   They are mostly professional bakers, including those who have won in previous years, a few food journalists and amateurs bread aficionados.

Each baguette is numbered to preserve anonymity.  Each juror gets 10 baguettes to judge for which he gives points in 4 categories.  The top possible score is 20.

The baguettes are judged on their merits of baking, the texture and color of the inside crumb, the odour and finally the taste. The process of scrutinization is rigidly adhered to.

Each juror must first observe the baguettes,  cut it,  touch it, and smell and lastly taste each morsel cut.  Through observation, you can quickly get an aspect of the degree of cooking as the  darker crust belies being well-baked.

Touch is necessary in order to judge the crunchiness of the crust, which is considered very important in a good baguette. No wimpy baguettes wanted here!

Those who really know breads, will insist on having a baguette “bien cuit”, by asking for one, knowing that others may not be as well cooked.  Trays of freshly baked bread will all be different based of their positioning during baking.

Cutting allows for visual aspect of the “mie”, or inside crumb.  The color should have a slight golden tint, never white!    Large “alveoles” or holes are considered to be demonstrative of a well risen baguette.

Smell is also extremely important, as superior quality flours and yeasts will develop wonderful aromas in appropriate rising times.  You can not hurry up the rising process as a well made baguette needs a long rising in order to develop taste and aroma.

Taste is of course ultimately subjective, but should be described as tasting almost buttery and nutty and not being overly yeasty.

This years winner is Ridha Rhadher who hails from a Tunisian family and states he has been making bread here since he was 15 years old.  His bakery , Le Paradis du Gourmand is in my own arrondissement, the 14 th.

From winning, he will have the prestigious task of being the official furnisher of  baguettes each day to the French presidential palace d’Élysée for a year.  He also wins 4 thousand euros.

Previous winners have said winning was a great boast of business, up to a 40 % increase in clients the following month.  M. Rhadher has also been asked to furnish bread to the Tunisian embassy here in Paris.

The 14 arrondissement is home to previous winner in 2004 and my own favorite baker, 3 rd runner-up in 2010 Dominique Saibron, who has consistently excellent baguettes.  I discovered him when I lived in the 5 th arrondissement, when he was head baker at the Boulanger Monge.  In 2009 he opened his own bakery on Rue Alesia in the 14 th.

I, unlike the French, do not have to have a baguette a day, so when I do buy one, I am very picky about where I go.  Having said that, I do feel I need to be more adventurous in trying out other bakers, who just might be the next undiscovered jewel.

If the best baguette contest is not enough to satisfy your French bread curiosity, the Fete du Pain in Paris has started too in front of Notre Dame, which I may write about next week!