These are the very best baguettes in Paris
These days, you go to Paris for house-roasted espresso in trendy Belleville. For lavish breakfasts, wine bars, neo-bistros and the flourishing new nouvelle cuisine. But what Marjan Ippel most enjoys biting into in the City of Light is a baguette de tradition.
The longer the queue, the better
In our down-to-earth little country, it is a fairly unfamiliar phenomenon: standing in line for food for, say, half an hour. Full? Then we’ll just go somewhere else, right? Not in Paris, where the quality of what is on offer can be measured by the length of the queue.
The longest queues are for artisan bakers of the baguette de tradition, or simply ‘tradition’. Not because Paris has only one good boulanger, making a long queue justified—as in the Netherlands. Quite the opposite. But in a city where bread has risen to such heavenly heights, the differences are becoming increasingly subtle and the queues proportionally longer.
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Tradition
In fact, you can buy an excellent tradition at any—yes, any—Parisian bakery. With a crisp crust, elastic crumb with irregular holes and a heavenly aroma.
The kind most Dutch bakers can only dream of. It is often said that it is down to the flour, the water, the yeast/starter or the ambient temperature. The fact remains that a good baguette is as rare in the Netherlands as a bad one is in Paris.
And when the standard is this high, discussions about crumb, crust, elasticity, aroma, moisture content, holes in the dough and mouthfeel only become more heated. Then it comes down to the details.
As with the annual election of the best baguette in Paris. Bakers come from every arrondissement in the city, carrying their top specimens under their arms, to have them judged by a jury.
Cuisson
They pinch, tear, smell, measure and taste, judging aspect (appearance), cuisson (baking), mie-alveolage (texture), odeur (aroma) and goût (taste), until the jury reaches a unanimous verdict.
The 14th arrondissement (let’s say, Montparnasse) and the 18th (let’s say, Montmartre) are strikingly frequent winners. They must, incidentally, adhere to strict rules: any baguette that does not measure between 55 and 65 cm, weigh between 250 and 300 grams, and use no more than 18 grams of salt per litre of flour is disqualified. And however many times the competition has already been held, that means a gigantic number of contestants are eliminated before the competition even begins every year.
Favourites
That perhaps explains why some of my own favourite artisan bakeries never make it among the winners. They probably do not colour within the lines.
Yes, I go to Paris for the latest neo-bistro, for new nouvelle cuisine and coffee beans roasted in trendy Belleville. But nothing brings greater happiness than a baguette in Paris.
Winners of the Best Baguette in Paris
2019: Fabrice Leroy (Boulangerie Leroy Monti, 12th)
2018: Mahmoud M’seddi (Boulangeri 2M, 14th)
2017: Sami Bouattour (Boulangerie Brun, 13th)
2016: Mickaël Reydellet & Florian Charles (La Parisienne, 6th)
2015: Djibril Bodian (Le Grenier à Pain, 18th)
2014: Antonio Teixeira (Aux Délices du Palais, 14th)
2013: Ridha Khadher (Au Paradis du Gourmand, 14th)
2012: Sébastien Mauvieux (Boulangerie Mauvieux, 18th)
My Paris Favourites
Du Pain et des Idées (10th)
Liberté (10th)
L’Autre Boulange (11th)
My Dutch Favourites
VanMenno, available at speciality shops and markets in Rotterdam and the rest of the Netherlands
Philippe Galerne, The Hague
Tom van Otterloo, Arnhem & De Steeg
Bond en Smolders, Utrecht
Gebr. Niemeijer, Amsterdam
Le Fournil de Sébastien, Amsterdam & Hilversum
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