There are baguettes, good baguettes, and then there are exceptional ones. It is the latter that the City of Paris, in partnership with the Syndicat des Boulangers du Grand Paris, seeks to distinguish each year, rewarding excellence in craftsmanship.
In 2024, the title of Best Baguette in Paris went to the Utopie bakery located at 20 Rue Jean-Pierre-Timbaud in the 11th arrondissement, and owned by Xavier Netry.
“Absolutely thrilled and very proud, I am over the moon! It’s a highly coveted prize,” exclaimed Xavier, a happy and relieved artisan baker.
Just before submitting his entry on Thursday, April 25th, Xavier felt the pressure at dawn, as he kneaded and baked his baguettes. After carefully monitoring their baking, he selected the most beautiful one to submit at Quai d’Anjou (Paris Centre), to participate in the annual competition for traditional French baguettes of the City of Paris. His efforts paid off: his baguette emerged as the winner among the 173 entries in the competition!
The bakery received a prize of 4,000 euros and becomes one of the suppliers for the Élysée Palace for a year. The Mayor of Paris presented the award to the winning bakery on May 7th during the Bread Festival. After the tasting, the uneaten baguettes were donated to the La Chorba association, benefiting homeless individuals.
Due to all the publicity, the entire Parisian community (as well as visitors to the 2024 Olympic Games) will get to know about Xavier’s baguettes, which received a perfect score of 5 out of 5 on all criteria for the competition: quality of baking, taste, texture of the crumb, alveolation, and appearance.
The contest judging panel was chaired by Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj (Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of commerce and crafts), and made up of representatives from major professional federations, journalists, as well as six randomly selected Parisians.
Visit Boulangerie Utopie on Instagram
Key Figures:
- 173. The number of baguettes entered for the 2024 competition
- 1,203. The number of bakeries in Paris, according to a study carried out by APUR in 2023.92.5% of Parisians live within 5 minutes of a bakery.
- Numeris Média is officially accredited media to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games