Only in France can a simple baguette cause the kind of controversy that arose in Paris this spring. Bread, if you weren’t already aware, is a very big deal in this food-obsessed country. Marie Antoinette found this out to her detriment in the 18th century. When told that a bread shortage was behind gathering mobs of angry Parisians she responded, “let them eat cake”.
The fate of a nation is less obviously at stake in the current dust-up. At issue are the qualifications of Djibril Bodian, this year’s holder of the Best Baguette of Paris prize. Bodian is from Senegal. He arrived in France with his parents when he was six.
Some Parisians are questioning whether Bodian is French enough to win such an award because he wasn’t actually born in France. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, America is not the only country where the legitimacy of a foreign-born citizen is challenged
On the positive side, the debate has drawn more attention to this annual contest. La Prix de la Baguette is a city-wide competition that began in 1991, the same year the French Bread Law was passed. (I’m not making this up.) This legislation was a response to a wide-spread decline in the quality of bread throughout France. In the 1970’s and 80’s bakers had begun selling commercially-made loaves that arrived at their bakery as either refrigerated or frozen dough. The law created a new class, the artisan baker, who made their bread entirely on premise. A sign to this effect, hung outside the bakery door, soon became a label of quality inside.
This year's contest drew 163 contestants, each of whom presented several samples of their pain traditionel. After carefully measuring and weighing each loaf – the French are sticklers for details like this - no less than 15 judges, some previous prize winners, went to work evaluating the baking, aroma, crumb and taste of every baguette. It took them four hours to reach a verdict.
And the prize is what? The publicity, of course, and the privilege of supplying the Elysee Palace (the French White House) with its daily bread for a year. The citizens of Montmartre are winners too. Djibril Bodian has two bakeries in this quarter and one of them is just around the corner from our apartment. I’m going to miss this daily baguette when I return home. Cake just doesn’t measure up.
Here’s BBC coverage of the story including an interview with Bodian:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8658953.stm?ls
