• The Strasbourg master baker Jérémy Keil has been selected for the final phase in Paris of the competition for the best traditional French baguette.

  • For this competition, he has been training for three weeks even though he is a regular at competitions and gold medals, to present a baguette with an airy crumb, with beautiful cells, with taste, a crispy crust of a beautiful color, rather very cooked.

  • The events will take place over three days from this Monday on the forecourt of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral with the designation on Wednesday of the big winner of this prestigious event.

    All of these final stages are open to the public.

As ready as for a marathon.

The master baker Jérémy Keil loves a challenge and he is on the job in the kitchen of his bakery Aux mille et une Saveurs, one of the three he has in Strasbourg.

He is selected for the final phase of the competition for the best French traditional baguette, which takes place from Monday in Paris.

For three weeks now he has been training with the stopwatch in hand, to get the right amount of dough, because he will have to produce exactly 40 baguettes in six hours.

He reviews “the shaping to see if it is on time”.

He kneads in several stages, uses liquid sourdough as for the contest (usually homemade sourdough which he refreshes every day), monitors the temperature and makes clever calculations based on the humidity.

He measures his traditional competition baguettes to the nearest centimeter, which he spreads out with the greatest care before putting them in the oven.

Everything to make it still perfect on D-Day.


Along with 11 other bakers who have been selected from all over France, he will represent the Grand-Est region during the final phase of the 8th national competition for the French traditional baguette which will take place from May 16 to 18 on the forecourt of Notre-Dame. , in Paris.

Even if the title is only honorary, Jérémy Keil hopes to win.

This is his third qualification for the final phase of this prestigious competition.

He likes it and has already won many gold medals in the region.

"It's also a way to see your level, to assess your bread because I don't have too much time to go for walks to see what others are doing, to position yourself and to learn more", explains this enthusiast who has been baking for more than thirty years.

The baguette must be beautiful "because you buy it first with your eyes"

The traditional baguette, he makes it every day of course, but these are a bit special.

“There are very specific criteria for the competition such as its length.

It must be 50 centimeters after cooking, with a small tolerance of +5% and weigh 250 g, still after cooking.

Its salt content must not exceed 18 g per kilo of flour.

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The criteria for a good traditional baguette?

“The crumb must be airy with beautiful cells, have flavor, the crust must be crispy with a nice color, fairly well cooked.

And then above all that it is a beautiful baguette, with a nice grigne, a sort of hem on the top, because you buy first with your eyes,” smiles the baker.

On the “secret” recipe side, apart from the rigor in the preparation of the dough, “it is above all the way and the kneading time that make the difference”, assures the baker.

“I have a traditional recipe, but it depends a lot on the shaping, whether you tighten your baguette or not.

The more you tighten it, the more you will have a grigne that will rise and the fewer cells you will have, and vice versa.

You have to find the middle ground.

“Great unknown however,

the competition machines that he does not know, just like the flour because the 40 baguettes must be made with the ingredients provided, without brand indication.

"And each flour reacts differently", emphasizes Jérémy Keil.

The final phase will take place over two days and the jury will select only six candidates who the next day, Wednesday, will meet for the ultimate test.

The finalists will have to present the forty sticks, in front of the public.

No doubt, the day at the feet of Notre-Dame de Paris will be beautiful.

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