It was THE contest in France this week… yet the French press didn’t print a single line about it. The only paper that did mention it was “The Wall Street Journal” – better know for its financiers than its foodies…. yet on April 3, they devoted a full page to… the Baking World Cup ! And for the first time in a (baker’s ?) dozen years, France, the land of the baguette, took home the gold.
To think the French had to find out about it from the prestigious Wall Street Journal… Wave the tricolor flags, strike up “La Marseillaise :” France has just won the World Cup… of Bread Baking ! It was about time, they’ve been trying to get back to the top step of the podium – which had become the exclusive property of the Japanese and the Americans (mon dieu !) – for 12 years now. The New York based daily, better known for its in-depth knowledge of the stocks and bonds than bread and croissants, explained that the competition is perfectly serious. The brainchild of Christian Vabret, a baker who was once named the “Best Craftsman in France,” this gourmet World Cup is open to the 12 best teams in the world, who bake off every 3 years at the “Salon international Europain” (“International Euro-bread Show”) in Villepinte, just northeast of Paris. The judges come from around the world (though not from countries that are competing), and their identities are kept top-secret until the contest begins. There are three categories : baguettes and special breads, viennoiserie (croissants and the like) and a freestyle, “artistic masterpiece,” a bread sculpture that is meant to be seen but not eaten.
For that last category, Christophe Debersee went with an “haute couture” theme, thus elegantly blending two French specialties in a single winning creation. He created a life-sized, elegantly garbed model made out of flour, water, salt and sourdough that looked both ready for the runway and good enough to eat !
It has to be admitted that Team France, coached by master-baker Pierre Zimmerman – who won the Cup for France in 1996 – went all out to take home the gold this year, beating out Taiwan and Italy, who had to settle for the silver and bronze respectively. American coach Jeffrey Yankellow, a.k.a. “Phoenix baker,” wasn’t surprised. The day before the medals ceremony, he told the Wall Street Journal’s reporter that “The French are ready to kill.”
Translated by : Regan Kramer
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