The Best Bakery in France: how are the bakeries selected?

New to this edition, Michel Sarran, told us during the program presentation conference how the world of baking was a high-flying field: “Bakery is extremely complex, as much as cooking. There is a multiplicity of breads, techniques, fermentation principles. It’s an incredible universe and I humbly admit that I don’t have that knowledge.”

Thus, in order to select the cream of the crop, production is obliged to carry out real painstaking work to establish the list of selected bakeries. But then how does it happen?

Production recognizes that selecting establishments requires “a casting process which is very long, because there are many bakeries, there are 2 per day. We have a lot of establishments to find”. And yes, it must be said that there are many candidates: “There are around 150 to 200 participants per year and we cast about twice as many.”

It is therefore essential to be methodical. For this, the criterion of geolocation is important: “We are crisscrossing. We know that in any case the best bakery in France is above all a tour of France. There are towns and villages where we spent the previous season and where we are not going to return. We’ll look elsewhere. There are many artisans in France”.

If the region is a factor that is taken into account, it is impossible to ignore the quality of the bakery: “From the moment we contact them locally, we contact several of them and we assess the level of the craftsman.”

Then, several criteria are taken into account: “We are still a competition of excellence so we need to have quality production. We select based on that. We also have to feel the innovation, the creativity because most bakeries make very good croissants, unfortunately that is not enough for the show. We need the guys to pull the craft a little into untapped areas. We want to surprise”.

Today, the show is looking for a complete establishment capable of handling three fundamental areas: baking, pastry and snacking.

This is what gives access to the show, “perceived by the craftsmen as a real highlight”affirms the production of La Meilleure boulangerie de France.

So to discover this French know-how, tune in from Monday to Friday on M6 from 6:30 p.m. starting January 8, 2024.