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A small neighbourhood bakery in Paris is being overwhelmed with fans after its owner won the prestigious Grand Prix de la Baguette competition.
“This is a non-negotiable must-try,” a fan enthused on Instagram. “The crunch is unreal!”
Sithamparappillai Jegatheepan is the owner of the Fournil Didot bakery, in Paris’ 14th arrondissement. He submitted his baguette to run alongside 143 other bakers taking part in the competition in March.
“I took part for the first time and won straight away,” he says.
The baguettes were lined up on two long tables in the historic building of the Paris Bakers’ Guild. A jury judged their loaves on taste, smell, crust and texture.

The morning after Jegatheepan won, customers crowded into his small bakery to congratulate him and his beaming team.
“This motivates me to become even better,” he says.
As well as the prize money of €4,000 (US$4,700), the baker stands to gain enormous prestige and new customers, and the privilege of supplying baguettes to the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the president of France, for a year.
Jegatheepan, who took over the bakery in 2022, is excited to meet President Emmanuel Macron.
The baker makes around 650 baguettes a day. They are baked in the oven at 270 degrees Celsius (518 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.

A key to his success is letting his dough rest for at least 24 hours.
Bakers know that fermentation time and the quality of the sourdough and the flour are crucial for a good baguette, says Saloua Ylian, who bakes around 300 to 500 baguettes a day at the Bonjour Paris bakery and took part in the competition for the first time.
Paris has more than 1,100 bakeries, and 93 per cent of the city’s population lives within a five-minute walk of a bakery.
Parisian baguettes are getting better
“Customers have become more demanding, and the quality of baguettes in Paris is improving,” says Vincent Joly, who has been taking part in the Grand Prix de la Baguette for 20 years and is the owner of the bakery chain Le Grenier à Pain, which has 25 branches.
Everyone now makes the higher-quality traditional baguette – made strictly on-site using only wheat flour, water, salt and yeast, with no preservatives or freezing – but unfortunately the price of this better bread has not kept pace, he says.
The bread really should cost around €2, but people are not willing to pay more than between €1.30 and €1.50 for a “tradi”, as customers and bakers call the better baguette.

Like all good things, making a better loaf takes time.
“Depending on the flour, the dough is prepared up to 24 hours before baking,” Joly says.
French mills vie to supply bakers with their high-quality flour. One is the Foricher mill, and baker Jordan Lardeux brought six baguettes to the contest, baked with its Label Rouge flour. For him, the key to a good baguette is craftsmanship, flour and time.
Part of France’s intangible cultural heritage
Aside from identifying the best loaves, the contest wanted to highlight the job of a baker, which involves getting up early, hard work and often low pay, said Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, Paris’ deputy mayor in charge of trade and crafts, before the contest began.
Baguettes were officially added to the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2022.
“Tourists who come to Paris want to eat baguettes, to try them,” says Pascal Barillon, president of the bakers’ guild. Later, they talk about it at home and thus become ambassadors for French baguettes, he says.
The winner of the prestigious award can expect a fourfold to fivefold increase in sales, he says.
The competition is important for the industry, as bakers gather and talk about their craft. Many of the participants greeted each other with a handshake and a chat after handing in their bread.
After all, even as prices rise and locals are dismayed by their dwindling purchasing power, good food still counts for the people of France.


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Food and Drinks

Paris crowns a new best baguette maker in prestigious bakery competition

Sithamparappillai Jegatheepan, owner of the Parisian bakery Le Fournil de Didot, is the winner of the 2026 Grand Prix de la Baguette competition. Photo: Michael Evers/dpa

Baguettes are lined up, ready for the Grand Prix de la Baguette. Photo: Michael Evers/dpa

The baguettes are judged on taste, smell, crust and texture. Photo: Michael Evers/dpa

Vincent Joly, owner of the Grenier à Pain bakery chain, enters loaves in the Grand Prix de la Baguette. Photo: Michael Evers/dpa

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Food & Drink

This year’s Grand Prix de la Baguette was won by the owner of the Fournil Didot bakery, who beat more than 140 other bakers


This year’s Grand Prix de la Baguette was won by the owner of the Fournil Didot bakery, who beat more than 140 other bakers.


France

Paris

Emmanuel Macron

Paris crowns a new best baguette maker in prestigious bakery competition

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}This year’s Grand Prix de la Baguette was won by the owner of the Fournil Didot bakery, who beat more than 140 other bakers

This year’s Grand Prix de la Baguette was won by the owner of the Fournil Didot bakery, who beat more than 140 other bakers