Bakers of Maghrebi origin are increasingly renowned in France as they appropriate and preserve one of the nation’s oldest traditions: the baguette. Far from the political debates on immigration currently holding the public’s attention in France and the United States, new French citizens are spontaneously finding their place in society with little trouble. This trend was spectacularly highlighted with the...[Subscriber]

Mahmoud M’Seddi is the best baker in Paris. For the second year in a row, a baker of Maghrebin descent has won the Baguette Grand Prix of the city of Paris. ”The French national bread scene is now undeniably multicolored,” approved American historian and French bread expert Steven Kaplan. An annual competition to make the best baguette in the French capital...[Subscriber]

As the French baguette enters the race to be given Unesco World Heritage status, American historian and French bread expert Steven Kaplan teaches us how to recognize and enjoy a good baguette de tradition. Six criteria matter: appearance, crust, crumb, mouth-feel, aroma, and taste. Viewed as a "fancy" food reserved for the bourgeoisie in the early 20th century, the baguette grew in popularity before...

The Maison Kayser French bakery chain opened its 11th New York site on March 15 in the Manhattan’s Midtown neighborhood. Needless to say, the company is continuing to convert Americans to the art of good bread, and is now working on new openings in Miami and Los Angeles.  It is midday in New York, and customers are bustling into the...

The opening of ten Kayser stores in New York in five years confirms Americans' interest in quality bread. For the chain of high-end French bakeries, which has to deliver the same bread as it does in Paris using different American ingredients, the stakes are high. It's four o’clock in the morning in New York. A smell of warm bread wafts through Greenwich Street...

Gluten-free chips, gluten-free dips, and gluten-free soups, pretzels, beer, and bread, not to mention gluten-free cheese sticks, fish sticks, bread sticks and soy sticks. These were just a few of the thousands of products on display at the most lavish annual gluten-free trade-fair that traversed the U.S. last Fall, according to a report in The New Yorker. This edenic profusion...[Subscriber]