Fresh bread from the local boulangerie is one of the things we love about Paris… especially the baguette. French baguettes received UNESCO’s world heritage status in 2022. According to the National Federation of French Bakers more than 6 billion baguettes are baked each year in France.
The prize this year for the best traditional style baguette in Paris was recently awarded to baker Mickael Reydellet of the Boulangerie “La Parisienne,” located at 12, rue du Faubourg-Poissoniere in the 10th arrondissement. Reydellet previously won the prize in 2016. He owns seven bakeries in Paris and two others in Normandy.
A French icon, the standard baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 centimetres (2 or 2⅓ in) and a usual length of about 65 centimetres (26 in), although a baguette can be up to a meter (39 in) long. Rules for the contest stipulate that a baguette weigh 250-300 grams and not contain more than 18 grams of salt per 1 kilo of flour. In addition to earning prize money (4,000 Euros), Reydellet won the chance to provide bread for a year to the Elysée Palace, the official residence of the French president.
And in related bakery news… a team of 18 French bakers in the city of Suresnes -located west of Paris- recently created an Olympian size 143 meter baguette capturing the Guinness Record title for the world’s longest. The title was previously held by Italian bakers from Como, Italy.