March 20, 2016

Judging The Best Baguette In Paris Competition

Best Baguette of Paris

It's not every day that you get invited to spend an afternoon sitting in a small room overlooking the Seine with an MOF or two, the president of la Chambre professionnelle des artisans boulangers-pâtissiers de Paris, a delightful fromagère, Djibril Bodian, the winner of last year's Best Baguette in Paris competition and, most importantly, two long tables lined with baguettes. 155 baguettes to be exact. To be tasted by only 15 of us.

A seemingly endless and daunting task, yet it was taken very seriously. We inspected, sniffed, poked, prodded, chewed and tasted 71 baguettes each over the course of the afternoon. The tasting wrapped up around 6:45pm, the final numbers were tallied up and the winner was called just after 7pm.

Then the bottles of Champagne came out, I'm sure with the goal to both toast us for our efforts and to get the flavor of bread out of our mouths.

Best Baguette of Paris Contest
Best Baguette or Paris Contest
Baguettes, as far as the eye can see!

As I mentioned in my most recent post, the jury is made up of mainly industry professionals and journalists, with a few members of the general public who, in the past, were chosen by an email lottery. This year they used Instagram as a means to choose those lucky few. When I received the message on my Instagram photo that I had been selected to join the jury, I had to read it twice before the news sunk in. I was thrilled!

I'm not sure how many calories I consumed over the 4+ hours of tasting, but they were worth every bite, even though I don't know when I'll be able to face eating another baguette again. And even though I am now and forever a hopeless baguette snob.
Yikes!

I cannot thank the Mayor's office and the city of Paris enough for such an amazing opportunity.


Here's the entire list of the Top Ten Baguettes of 2016 and Paris by Mouth has them all mapped out for us.

Best Baguette or Paris Contest
MOF Benoît Nicolas of Ferrandi and Corinne Fouchereau, owner of la Fromagerie d’Auteuil, receiving instructions about the judging process.

Best Baguette of Paris 2016
A perfect, well aerated, cream colored interior .

Best Baguette in Paris Competition 2016
These baguettes made it through the first round of tasting. They were then tasted a second and a third time before the final numbers were added up.

Best Baguette or Paris Contest
The 74 that were eliminated from the competition for not meeting the weight and measurement standards of a baguette de tradition. (between 55-65cm and 250-300g)

Best Baguette of Paris 2016
Olivia Polski from the Mayor's office, on the phone with this year's winner, with Djibril Bodian, the winner from 2015, and Dominique Antract looking on.



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14 comments:

spacedlaw said...

Wow.I am totally impressed.

Amanda said...

Wonderful post! Not easy finding good baguettes in Los Angeles; even La Brea Bakery bread is too dense. So happy for you to have been chosen and there is nothing wrong being a baguette snob!

Anne said...

So cool. For those of us now stateside, some of those "bad" ones which actually be better than most of what we can get!

Mardi Michels said...

Thrilled you got to experience this. I can't think of a better person to take on this mission!

Joe said...

This is the most interesting blogpost I have read in a while!!👍🏼

Edna said...

So cool that the winner from the previous year gets to be a judge (and that the winners change every year)!

CWolfe said...

Bravo!!! What fun!!! Even in Mexico, we can find a decent baguette from time to time, but the pickings are certainly slim.

Taste of France said...

I tell you, the best baguettes aren't in Paris. They're at Noez in Carcassonne. We even load up on them to take to the in-laws in the north.

Kerry said...

What a great experience. I'd never realised that baguettes could taste so different.

monishiwa moonshine said...

Getting hungry looking at them!

Wendl said...

How fortunate you are to receive such an honor! They chose well when they chose you. Next time I see you, I will have to ask you to tell me how a good baguette should taste.

R.Ewen said...

The winner's Boulangerie La Parisienne, 48 rue Madame, listing online states that the shop is closed. The other listing for Boulangerie La Parisienne is on rue Monge in the 6th. Could you please clarify the address? I know the online google information can be misleading or incorrect and that shops close and move often. I would like to go to the rue Madame site to give it a try but I don't want to walk there and have it be closed. It would be a pleasant walk through the Luxembourg Gardens from the 5th.
If you or your other readers can verify the address as open, I would be grateful. Richard, r58ewen@gmail.com.

Jennifer said...

It was an incredible experience! I honestly have to thank the Mayor of Paris' office for choosing me to be a judge.
Thank you all for such lovely comments!

Jennifer said...

Richard,
I have a friend who walked by the boulangerie last week and saw lines down the block. I'm not sure where you are getting that information, but the bakery is open. Enjoy!