Look, the French know how to make a great baguette, right? There’s not much dispute there. No one regularly says, “Eh, I don’t think the French have really proven their baguette-making skills yet.”
But wait. Can the French make a big baguette? A huge baguette that could feed a small town?
Yes. Turns out they can do that too.
French bakers in Suresnes, west of Paris, made a 461-foot baguette on Sunday. The massive loaf successfully returned the title of world’s longest baguette to France, according to Guinness World Records, by surpassing a 435-foot baguette made by (gasp) Italians in 2019.
That’s longer than a football field. Hang on. To stop. We are in France. It’s the length of nine petanque courts!
Before you accuse bakers of making an absurdly thin baguette to game the system, know that record-breaking baguettes must be about two inches thick.
A team of 18 people shaped the dough, which used 90 kilos of flour, starting at 3 am, and at around 5 am they began slowly placing it in the oven. It gradually appeared on the other side, completely roasted.
It was a great moment in Suresnes. City leaders sent a flurry of messages on social media before and after the bake.
“Bravo aux boulangers,” declared the city. (“Congratulations to the bakers.”)
“ Suresnes is proud to have been the stage for this record for the longest baguette in the world, which promotes a national symbol of our gastronomy and also of the artisans who perpetuate their know-how”, said Guillaume Boudy, the mayor, to the municipality. website.
Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Bakery and Pastry, gently nodded to an event coming to the region this summer that probably won’t get as much attention as the baguette feat:
“In this Olympic year, congratulations to all our artisan bakers,” he said, adding: “Our baguette is an essential part of our gastronomic heritage.”
After baking, the baguette was distributed to the public, including homeless people. But only after spreading Nutella, of course.
So the baguette was big. But that didn’t make it a success d’estime. To do this, we would have to resort to the annual Grand Prix de la Baguette.
For the past 30 years at this event, baguettes have been rigorously judged on flavor, texture and numerous other factors. Judges include bakers, politicians, ordinary citizens and journalists (unfortunately, not this one).
This year’s winner, out of 173 contestants who competed in April, was Xavier Netry of Boulangerie Utopie in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
Furthermore, it was the French baguette – neither Italian, nor American, nor Burkinabe nor Monégasque – that in 2022 joined the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, along with products such as Ukrainian borscht, Korean kimchi and Haitian joumou soup. .
Even if some other emerging nationality does a 150 meter baguette tomorrow, France will remain number one.
