concours de la meilleure baguette de paris (12. 896)

Held annually at the end of March at the guildhall of Baker-Pastry (boulangerie-pâtisserie) Craftsmen on Île Saint-Louis in the Seine to determine the best baguette in Paris, we learn—courtesy of Messy Nessy Chic—that this grand prix, the tradition inaugurated in 1994 is serious business with exacting rules for eligibility and judged by a jury of food critics, peers and randomly selected Parisiens and judged on quality of “doneness,” crumb, taste, smell and appearance (la cuisson, la mie, le goût, l'odeur et l’aspect). Aside from the acclaim and recognition, the winner is awarded a medallion, an honorarium of four thousand euro and quasi royal-charter as the baguette suppler to the Élysée presidential palace for one year.