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Djibril Bodian Wins Mayor's Prize for Baking the Best Baguettes in Paris Posted April 10, 2011 Story
and photos The first thing that hits you when you walk into Le Grenier a Pain, the little neighborhood boulangerie in Montmartre that has suddenly been thrust into the Paris spotlight, is the wonderful aroma of freshly-baked breads.
(Le Grenier a Pain sits on a narrow street in Montmartre)
This is where I've come to buy the very best "baguettes de tradition" that Paris has to offer -- and meet the man who bakes them. Since 1993, the Paris mayor's office has offered a prize to the baker who can bake the best baguettes in the city, and the latest award has gone to Djibril Bodian, a 33-year-old baker born in Senegal who arrived in France when he was six. When I walk in, a young woman employee, her red apron dusted with flour, fills a bag with two of Bodian's baguettes for a waiting customer, as another employee passes by me with a wicker basket full of golden ficelle, the thin variety of baguettes with a distinctive pointed end. Endless choices... Where to look next? The choices seem endless. Two varieties of brioches are stacked near the counter -- chocolat and sugar - but I am quickly drawn to a bunch of moist almond croissants topped with thinly sliced almonds on top of a display case, inside of which are pastries with a rainbow of alluring colors and shapes. There are also jars of preserves and chutneys with the Grenier a Pain label on a shelf near the entrance to the boulangerie. Just a few feet behind the counter, Bodian - there he is in his white T-shirt -- lowers one of three large trays of baguettes he has just pulled out of the mouth of an oven.
(Djibril Bodian has won the mayor's prize for making the best "baguettes de tradition" in Paris) His "apprenticeship" in the art of baking started as a child, soon after arriving in Paris from his native Senegal. In fact, he remembers playing in his father's bakery and confides, as if by understatement, that "the world of the bakery is something that I know very well." These days, it's all work - even though some might argue that the work you love is also a form of play. Bodian starts early in the morning at Le Grenier a Pain, which is part of a chain created by the celebrated baker, Michel Galloyer, who pays homage to bread in his autobiography, "Why Not Me?" After Bodian's prize was announced, the boulangerie was besieged by people from other parts of Paris and from as far away as Bordeaux desiring to taste his baguettes, which are priced at about $1.65 each.
(Colorful pastries are also for sale at Le Grenier a Pain)
But Le Grenier a Pain, whose beige-and-brown motif and exposed brick walls lend rusticity, remains a quintessentially neighborhood bakery in an area of Paris known for the red windmill of Le Moulin Rouge and the Sacre-Coeur Church, which overlooks the city near, of all things, an actual vineyard. Baking baguettes for the French President Besting 162 other bakeries, Bodian received a 4,000-euro prize and the distinction of being the official supplier of baguettes for a year to the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French President. It's nothing to scoff at in a country like France, where baguettes, a staple of French dining, are typically carried home under the arm after work or nibbled at lunchtime on the street. The Number 54 bus drops me off in front of Le Moulin Rouge on Boulevard de Clichy, just one stop away from the famous Brasserie Wepler in Place de Clichy. Knowing that I am this close to the brasserie, the old haunt of the late American writer Henry Miller, not only reminds me of Montmartre's literary and artistic connections but also fills me with a real sense of nostalgia because my wife and I had met Miller many years earlier at a party in his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
(The rue Lepic is a narrow street on the way to the bakery)
From Boulevard de Clichy, I walk up rue Lepic, disappearing into a maze of small cafes, fruit vendors, grocers and boutique shops hidden behind parked cars and motorcycles crowding the little street. After a bit more walking, I spot the brown awning of Le Grenier a Pain at 38 rue des Abbesses and take notice of the announcement of the mayor's prize proudly displayed on the front window of the bakery. The French take their baguettes very seriously, so much so that in 1993, France passed a law detailing how to make "baguettes de tradition." The law has some very stringent rules: only flour, water, salt and yeast, and nothing artificial may be used in the preparation of the baguettes, which have a classic, hard crust with slits across the top to allow them to breathe. Judges
considered a variety of things in the contest, but for Bodian, the most important
quality in a "baguette de tradition" is its taste.
(A thin version of baguettes)
"Machines can't replace a human being," Bodian says, "because there are some steps a human has to do which a machine can't do." As
he takes a batch of warm baguettes from the oven with his bare hands, the young
baker reminds a visitor that, after all is said and done, there really is no secret
to making the best baguettes in Paris. "The only secret," he notes, "is to be patient and to respect all the ingredients." IF YOU GO… Le
Grenier a Pain, located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, is open from 7:30
a.m. - 8 p.m., and closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. | ||
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