There were twenty bakers at the start of the week, from all over France. They were only six this Wednesday morning on the esplanade of Notre-Dame de Paris. And at the end of a long competition, it was the Norman baker Valentin Lecœur, just 30 years old, who won.
What differentiates his traditional baguette, “a very long fermentation,” he believes. And raw materials chosen from among the best possible ”. Valentin Lecœur hopes that there will be people on Thursday morning in front of the Montaigne bakery in Saint-Lô, of which he is “not the boss, not just a worker” and wishes “to remain so”.
Six criteria of equal importance
The twenty bakers were divided into two groups of ten after which three were admitted to the final. They had six hours to prepare their baguettes before submitting them to a jury chaired by Pascal Barillon (best baguette in Paris 2011). The criteria, of equal importance: the appearance, the aroma, the color and the crunchiness of the crust, the aspect and the honeycomb of the crumb, the chewiness and the taste. In this little game, the final was very close and it was ultimately the youngest of the candidates who won. “But anyway, if you have one of these bakers near you, we can say that you are spoiled”, confessed one of the jurors to 20 minutes.