After winning a baguette competition, a Tunisian prepares bread for President Macron for a whole year

A Tunisian-born baker won yesterday the "Best Baguette in Paris" competition, after a fierce competition, which will entitle him to serve this famous French type of bread on the table of French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace for a year, according to Agence France-Presse.

This year, more than 170 Parisian bakers competed for the award for the best baguette in the city, out of 1,107 artisan bakers in the French capital, the birthplace of the baguette.

The winning baker, Makram Akrout, works in the bakery "Les Boulangerie du Roy" in the 12th arrondissement in Paris.

The 42-year-old baker, who has been working in France for 19 years after leaving Tunisia, considered this title a "harvest of years of experience."

"I am very proud," Akrout told AFP, adding, "I have to be up to par, with all these people who will come here to taste the best baguettes in Paris."

Al-Akrout finished tenth in this competition in 2017, then came sixth in 2018.

In addition to the award, Akrout won the right to supply the Elysee Palace with baguettes for a year.

He said, "I will prepare for this task."

In the offices of the Syndicate of Bakers and Confectioners in the greater Paris region, in the center of the French capital, all the baguettes were received and numbered without revealing the names of the bakers who attended them.

Then a panel of 12 industry professionals and Parisians tasted and marked the different pieces of bread according to five criteria: appearance, smell, degree of cooking, hollows inside the soft part of the bread, and, of course, taste.

Each piece of bread must be made in the traditional way, weighing between 264 and 314 grams and length between 55 and 70 centimeters.