At the end of a suspenseful evening last week, the verdict was in. Breads Bakery was awarded the 2022 Best Baguette in the New York Metropolitan Area by a jury that was present to taste – blind – the baguettes of 15 finalists. The new Bread Story house, founded by former Maison Kayser chef Yann Ledoux, won both the 2nd prize and the Special Bread Award, while Australian Paul Allam’s Bourke Street Bakery came in third. The public also chose a winner (the Fan Prize), and, like the jury, chose Breads Bakery.
The jury was composed of chefs Alain Allegretti and Laurent Tourondel; chocolatier and Meilleur Ouvrier de France, Jacques Torres; Sébastien Baud, chef at the French Consulate; Thomas Renault, representing French Bee, the French airline and a sponsor of the event, and authors Layana Aguilar-Hordijk and Melanie Dunea.
French Morning’s last baguette event was in 2019. The line was long in front of the French Consulate General on Fifth Avenue, and more than 400 bread lovers were able to sample baguettes from the competing bakeries: Bourke Street Bakery, Breads Bakery, Bread Story, Brooklyn French Bakers, Chocopain, Frenchette, La Boulangerie de François, Le French Dad, L’Imprimerie, Liv Breads, Pain d’Avignon, Pistache, Richaud, and Winner.
“We are delighted to host the awards for the best baguette of New York, which is a symbol of French know-how and tradition, here, at the consulate. The atmosphere is very friendly and warm,” said the Consul General of France, Jérémie Robert, who visited all the bakers’ stands. In the audience, hugs between French people who met by chance and camaraderie: a man greets his local baker, while a duo of American women exchange and comment on the pieces of bread accompanied cheeses from Three Little Pigs.
“It’s so good, it’s really hard to stop. I’ll regret it tomorrow, but never mind,” smiles one participant, piece of baguette in hand. A few children in berets wandered around with their bread baskets in the middle of the crowd, and the bakers had smiles on their faces, happy to be able to exchange with the public after two years of a long and difficult pandemic. “Making bread is a real passion, it’s an expertise we cultivate every day, but it’s also sharing it with people that brings us a lot of joy,” we hear from Pistache.
For Breads Bakery, which participated in the competition in 2019, it was a beautiful night of affirmation: “We are surprised and so happy to have won in two categories. It’s a reward for the work and love we’ve been putting into it for almost 10 years,” said Israeli Gadi Peleg, owner of Breads Bakery. The bakery, founded in 2013 and based in Union Square, focuses on natural and organic ingredients and now has four stores: Union Square, Bryant Park, Lincoln Center and, more recently, the Upper East Side, where it took over a former Maison Kayser location between 74th Street and Third Avenue. For his part, Yann Ledoux, who won the 2019 edition of Best Baguette with Maison Kayser, holds his place as an exceptional baker with his new Bread Story location in Stuyvesant Town in the East Village.
This 2022 edition of New York’s Best Baguette is sponsored by…
French Bee generously gave away 2 round-trip tickets from Paris to New York in a random drawing during the event!
Our other sponsors include:
