Sri Lankan baker 'cried' when he won 'Best Baguette 2023' award in Paris
When in Paris this year and wondering where to get the best baguette, go to the bakery "Au levain des Pyrénées" in the 20th district of the capital.
On 10th May Tharshan Selvarajah, a baker of Sri Lankan origin who immigrated to France in 2012, won the 30th edition of the Grand Prix of the best French traditional baguette of the City of Paris. He said “I cried when I heard that I had won best baguette in the French capital this week and because we are foreigners and we came here to learn how to make traditional French bread."
Selvarajah told AFP he always makes his long loaves "with love", while "smiling, laughing and singing", and the result is well-cooked, delicious and crusty. Apart from winning 4,000 Euros, he now gets the opportunity of supplying the French presidential residence with baguettes every morning for the entire year.
15 baguette connoisseurs selected Selvarajah's version of the iconic French bread as the best among 175 anonymous contenders. To win the Grand Prix for the best traditional baguette in Paris, the products submitted had to measure between 50 and 55 cm, weigh between 250 and 270 grams and have a salt content of 18 grams per kilo of flour. The baguettes were then judged according to several criteria: baking, taste, crust, crumb, honeycombing (air bubbles) and overall appearance. For the jury there was no time to idle, since each member had to taste no less than 62 baguettes in the space of 4 hours.
Bread has always been important in France, and Paris baguettes are most definitely a part of that tradition. A century ago the typical Parisian ate over 600 grams of bread per day. Today, that amount is more like 150 grams. Over the years, as demand declined, so did the quality of Paris baguettes – going from bad to worse during World Wars I and II, when rationing affected bakers' ability to obtain supplies.
The dubious quality of some Paris baguettes led to changes in the early 1990s. In 1993 a law was passed in France that regulates how a baguette de tradition (traditional baguette) must be made. Baguettes de tradition has to be made on the premises of the boulangerie, from start to finish. They can contain only four ingredients — wheat flour, yeast, salt and water. Only then can they be called tradition. The baguette law is supported by an annual competition for the best Paris baguettes — the Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville de Paris.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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