Paris bakery rises to top in best baguette contest again

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/16/paris-best-baguette-bakery-wins-again

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On the outside it is golden and crusty, with a light dusting of flour. On the inside it is cream coloured, airy and slightly chewy.

This is – officially – the best baguette in Paris, made by baker Anthony Teixeira, sold to customers in his boulangerie, Aux Délices du Palais, and soon to be gracing the breakfast table of the French president, François Hollande.

Teixeira saw off nearly 200 rivals last week to take the prestigious award, which was won by his father, Antonio, 16 years ago. It is the first time a Parisian boulangerie has won the title twice.

The baguette, the iconic long, slim stick of bread, has traditionally ranked beside the beret, strings of garlic and the Eiffel tower as one of the most potent symbols of French culture.

In rural areas, elderly French people still trace the sign of the cross on the bottom of their baguette with a knife before cutting it. They always keep it top side up and never, for equally mythical reasons, cut it from both ends.

At Aux Délices du Palais, customers in the long queue snaking to the door in the 14th arrondissement agreed that Teixeira and his family made exceedingly good bread, not to mention excellent macarons – for which they have also won prizes – and mouthwatering pâtisserie.

The French are believed to consume around 10bn baguettes every year, most of them produced by local bakers. Bread is a cultural and occasionally political subject in France, where the 1789 revolution and the storming of the Bastille were sparked by, among other things, rising bread prices.

Being quintessentially French, the baguette – the word is literally translated as "wand" – has not escaped France's infamous bureaucracy. According to decree 93-1074 of 13 September 1993, the baguette de tradition française can only be made with the following ingredients: wheat flour, water, yeast or raising agent and salt. There are a couple of sub-clauses allowing very small deviations from the golden regulation, mostly concerning types of flour. Preservatives are banned.

But what makes a good baguette? "It has to be very well-cooked – not all white and pasty," said customer Roger. "We were four boys at home when we were young. There wasn't much money for food, so a good bread to go with the meal was essential … and you would never throw away so much as a crumb."

"Golden, crusty … and it must have the right smell," added Vincent.

Teixeira, 24, who starts work at 3am and produces about 1,500 baguettes a day, said a good baguette should always be golden and crusty on the outside and have a regular airiness on the inside.

"We have our recipe, but the real secret is love for the job," he said. "It is very hard work, and you have to be motivated, but we enjoy it and we do it for our customers. I know of boulangers who make a special dough just for their competition baguette, but we aim for excellence all the time. Winning this prize is great, but for us it is a confirmation of the quality we try to maintain."

It is the 20th year of the competition to find Paris's best baguette. A total of 187 were submitted for a blind tasting, but 50 were rejected for not being the correct size (55-65cm) or weight (250g-300g). The loaves must not contain more than 18 grammes of salt per kilo of flour. Each is judged blind and marked on five criteria: appearance, crust, the bread inside the crust, the smell and the taste. The texture of a good baguette should be moist, very slightly chewy and with a hint of a nutty flavour.

The winning baker gets to deliver 40 baguettes to the Elysée presidential palace every morning for a year.

Teixeira would not be drawn on whether the presidential breakfast order might also include a few croissants. Hollande is reported to have sent his bodyguard to buy croissants from the shop during secret trysts with his actress girlfriend Julie Gayet. "It's a very great honour to be making baguettes for the president," he said tactfully.