The is an annual competition to determine the best baguette in Paris. Its official name is (). First held in 1994, the competition is organized by the city of Paris in collaboration with the Confédération nationale de la boulangerie-pâtisserie française (National Confederation of French Bakeries and Patisseries). The winner receives a medal and a prize of 4,000 euros. The bakery is given the honor of becoming a supplier to the Élysée, the official residence of the President of France, for one year.
History The competition has been organized by the Paris City Hall every year since 1994. It takes place on the premises of the Professional Chamber of Baker-Pastry Craftsmen, on the Île Saint-Louis. The jury of 15 members is made up of professionals, food journalists, and since 2020, six Parisians drawn by a lottery.
Competition process To be eligible for the prize, baguettes must measure between , weigh between and have a salt content of a level of of flour. Many of the baguettes fail to meet this standard and are immediately disqualified. Those that qualify are spread across three tables at which members of the jury are seated. The baguettes are numbered to guarantee anonymity. The selection criteria are doneness, crumb, taste, smell, and appearance. These qualities are scored between 0 and 4. The ten best are determined from each table for a total of 30. In the second round, the members of each table judge the 10 selected by the other two groups of jurors. From this final tasting, a winner is selected.
Prize In addition to a medal and a prize of , the winner becomes a supplier to the Élysée for one year. Winners also benefit from recognition allowing them to increase turnover, with some seeing between a 15 to 25 percent increase in sales volume and some bakeries gaining international renown.
List of winners
1994: René Saint-Ouen 1995: Jean-Noël Julien 1996: Philippe Gosselin 1997: René Saint-Ouen 1998: Antonio Teixeira 1999: Stéphane Pouget 2000: Raoul Maeder 2001: Pierre Demoncy 2002: Raoul Maeder 2003: Laurent Connan 2004: Pierre Thilloux 2005: Eric Sanna 2006: Jean-Pierre Cohier 2007: Arnaud Delmontel 2008: Anis Bouabsa 2009: Franck Tobarel 2010: Djibril Bodian 2011: Pascal Barillon 2012: Sébastien Mauvieux 2013: Ridha Khadher 2014: Antonio Teixeira 2015: Djibril Bodian 2016: Mickaël Reydellet and Florian Charles 2017: Sami Bouattour 2018: Mahmoud M’seddi 2019: Fabrice Leroy 2020: Taieb Sahal 2021: Makram Akrout 2022: Damien Dedun 2023: Tharshan Selvarajah 2024: Xavier Netry 2025: Mickaël Reydellet 2026: Sithamparappillai Jegatheepan
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