best baguette in Paris

As a public service here's the baguette and the artisan baker voted best in Paris!

 Djibril, the Senegalese born, second generation baker also won the top prize -  Grand prix de la baguette de tradition française de la Ville de Paris - five years ago.

His bakery will provide bread for President Hollande and the Elysées Palace for an entire year, just as he did for Sarkozy back in 2010.
It's an annual competition and I know I'd like to be a taste tester on the voting committee. Would you?

I discovered too late that the only requirements for entering the drawing pool are 1) Be in Paris 2) Be able to eat a few hundred baguettes in a few hours 3) Were free on Thursday March 26th, 2015. Be warned for next year. All you had to do was email to enter and the winners for judging were picked from the email pool received. The lucky winner/taster joined one of three jury panels composed of professional bakers, prize-winning apprentices, bakers’ union bureaucrats, a few journalists, and previous winners.

Here's the top five in case you'd like a reference for your next Paris visit.

Paris’ Top Baguettes in 2015

#1 Djibril Bodian of Le Grenier à Pain Abbesses, 38 rue des Abbesses, 75018

#2 Sami Bouattour of 193 rue de Tolbiac Paris, 75013

#3 Benoît Huré of Huré, 150 avenue Victor Hugo, 75016

#4 Christian Vabret & Philippe Simoes of L’Académie du Pain, 30 rue d’Alésia, 75014

#5 Jacky Renouf of Le Puits d’Amour, 249 boulevard Voltaire, 75011

The baguettes were judged on five specific criteria:
Baking
Taste
Texture
Smell
Appearance
All baguettes entered into the competition also had to measure between 55 and 65cm, weigh between 250 and 300 grams, and have a salt content of 18 grams per kilogram of flour. According to Rémi Heluin of the excellent bread blog Painrisien, out of the 231 participants, 113 baguette entries were thrown out for not meeting the weight and length requirements or having unregulated cuts on the crust. 

Zut alors!

Cara - Tuesday