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By Root 1056 0

way eating habits have changed the role of bread in French life, and that, as one baker told her, “the French bread the Japanese make is much better than the average French!” But she concludes that “romance based on ignorance and fantasy and unconscious prejudice is not as satisfying or rich as romance grounded in the truth. Maybe one can include fairy tales in the range of possibilities, and consciously choose to be romantic sometimes and just stick to the opinion that you are eating the world’s most glorious loaf of bread.” It’s a wonderfully written book that’s also an eye-opener. Boulangerie! is a paperback guide, a little bigger than an index card so you can easily carry it around with you, featuring 223 establishments in every arrondissement. A primary consideration for inclusion was the response to the question “Faites-vous le pain vous-même?” (Is your bread baked here in your shop?) The authors listed only boulangeries whose answer was yes; in 1997, the French government’s small business ministry stipulated that only bakeries that selected their own flour, kneaded their own dough, and baked the loaves on their premises may be called boulangeries. The boulangeries are not rated, but the author team assures readers that the selected listings will not disappoint.

Since 1993, there has been an annual Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville de Paris contest, which is a long way of saying a Best Baguette in Paris contest. In March of 2010, 141 baguettes were sampled by fifteen judges, who included Franck Tombarel of Le Grenier de Félix (64 avenue Félix Faure, 15ème, and the 2009 winner) and Benjamin Turquier of Boulangerie 134 RDT (134 rue de Turenne, 3ème, and the 2009 runner-up). The 2010 winner was Djibril Bodian of Le Grenier à Pain Abbesses (38 rue des Abbesses, 18ème). (To learn the names of other honorees, try Googling “best baguette in Paris” and a year.) The editors at a great site called Paris by Mouth (parisbymouth.com) had a different list in 2010 (with some overlap); in their Five Great Baguettes, Eric Kayser (8 rue Monge, 5ème) took the number one spot, followed by Gosselin (258 boulevard Saint-Germain, 7ème), Du Pain et des Idées (34 rue Yves-Toudic, 10ème), Coquelicot (24 rue des Abbesses, 18ème), and Julien (75 rue Saint-Honoré, 1er). The contributing editors at Paris by Mouth, by the way, are a discerning bunch—they include head editor Meg Zimbeck as well as Alexander Lobrano, Clotilde Dusoulier, Dorie Greenspan, Patricia Wells, and Wendy Lyn. In their profiles on the site, they each share their Top 3 Paris Tastes, a valuable little guide by itself.

Culinary Paintings

Years ago, when I was looking through a large box of postcards I’d accumulated from various museums and galleries, I noticed that I had a great number of still life images, and these all depicted food and drink: walnuts, silver goblets, brioches, cherries, melons, apricots, beautiful bowls, coffeepots, wine, bread, apples, onions, picnics, fancy feasts … I had them all and I loved them and I didn’t want them hidden in a box anymore. But I had entirely too many to do something meaningful with them all, so I selected those I loved the best and had them framed. Some of these were actually high-quality cards suitable for framing, and they really do look fine under glass. These are now in my dining room and kitchen, and I’m so glad I can look at them often.

So, naturally, I love the Poilâne boulangerie, not only for the bread, which is outstanding, but for the little room in the back that is essentially a museum of paintings, all depicting loaves of bread. It seems not everyone knows about this room, but anyone is welcome to walk in—it’s just behind the cash register. I think it’s wonderful. The paintings were collected by Pierre Poilâne, who founded the original bakery in 1932. Lionel, Pierre’s son, later ran the business until he died tragically in a plane crash in 2002; Pierre’s daughter Apollonia is now carrying on the family tradition. The elder Poilâne exchanged his bread for paintings, and though I don’t believe