Le Baguette — So, What’s the Big Deal?
Le French Baguette was invented over 100 years ago, in 1920 to be exact, and it translates as « wand » or « baton » in French. Très phalique, non?…The More You Know: French law states that it must be made with no less and no more than flour + salt + water + yeast. Do you think the baguettes on our list classify as legal? Shamelessly tear away a piece and judge for yourself as you walk the streets of Paris — the only eating and walking not frowned upon around here. And — très important — get a baguette ‘tradition’ and not a plain old baguette. The baguette tradition is the crustier, denser hot sister to the, let’s be honest, ~basic bitch~ baguette… But first…
~Some Tea, Spilled to Go With Your Bread~
So way, way back in 2019, Makram Akrout of « Les Boulangers de Reuilly » (see below), won the coveted « Best Baguette of Paris » …and was all set to deliver his wands to the Elysee Palace where the President would share them with world leaders, etc. Journalists did their thing and discovered that Mr. Akrout seems to maybe kind of posted some ISIS Jihadi stuff on Facebook — It happens to us all, non? You send inappropriate nudes, or you suddenly become famous and your old blackface videos or Jihadi posts surface (lol which is worse?) and there’s some ‘splaining to do. #sorelatable. Should a baguette be judged on its merits, completely separate from the hands that *allegedly* typed out some pro-ISIS stuff circa 2015? Philosphical questions. But we love sinking our teeth into philosophy here in France. Case in point: I attended a neighborhood meeting after the 2015 terror attacks, which I American-ly expected to be about fortifying security, etc. What I found was Frenchies debating the nature of fear. LOL. I’m not from Texas but I felt like Yosemite Sam.
But back to bread: This being France, there’s regularly some baguette scandal, like famous bakers copying their non-famous teacher’s bread (NOT naming THOSE names).
Here is the PARIS » D E F I N E D masterlist of unmissable baguettes: