Trying the "Official " best pastries and breads in Paris (including prices and locations)

Hi you guys, it's Ariel. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. I hope you're all doing well. Today's video is very fun because the jury's out. We have the list of the best croissant, the best baguette tradition, the best flan, and the best pastry in Paris. We're gonna bring you with us to visit all these different bakeries and try their delicious confections. Now, the list and governing body comes from the Union of Bakers of the Greater Paris Region and its members are the artisan bakers and pastry chefs who have their bakeries in the Greater Paris Region, who own their bakery, and who bake and cook their products on site. Every year, they have a ton of different competitions for the best pastries and the best breads and they release the results online. All right, we're gonna start with the best croissant in Paris. And I have to say, this bakery comes as no surprise to me because they've been in my guides and in my consultation calls for years. And I'm talking about the Boulangerie Sentier in the second arrondissement. Time for the taste test. We obviously got the croissant, but they had these delicious looking sandwiches on display. It's an apple brie sandwich, which is my favorite. And also it's lunchtime. Maybe I can show the inside. I think there's also honey in here. We'll start with this, leave you in suspense. I'm too biased to rate this because this is my favorite type of sandwich and it's actually really rare to find in Paris. I think this is the first one I've had in years. And it's so good. I love that combination of savory cheese and sweet apple. Already I'm impressed with that sandwich, but now the moment you've all been waiting for, the croissant. I regret not getting napkins because as you know, it's a butter croissant. So it is a little greasy. Guys, please look at my fingers. I love how flaky it is. It's so good. I feel like it's not really a taste test for me because I have had many of their croissants that are always so good. But yeah, I love the flavor. I love that you could just tell it's a quality croissant. Like it tastes like the butter. It's flaky, fresh. It's everything a croissant should be. But we'll get the French man's opinion. Okay, texture, smell. Smell, perfect texture. Yeah. I like when the inside is like this. This one is really good. Maybe if you come like at the start of the day, it will be even better. But the noon croissants are good. So let's go. I think it deserves the first prize. Why do you think they'd be better in the morning? Because they're just fresh made and they came out of the oven. So they are maybe a bit more flaky. Maybe, maybe. I don't know. I assume. Before we move on to our next stop, I just wanted to say that if you want to do a fun experiment, the Boulangerie Sentier is 30 seconds that way and 30 seconds this way. You have the Rue du Nil and that's where you have my second favorite bakery, which is Terroir d'Avenir. I won't say second favorite. They're tied for first place. Terroir d'Avenir and Boulangerie Sentier. But yeah, you can come down the street, try their croissants, see how it compares and also go for a really yummy coffee at Labra Café. I think it's called. I'll put it in a little pop-up. So this is the Rue du Nil, a beautiful cobblestone street. We have the Terroir d'Avenir bakery right here. And then a little further down is the coffee shop I was talking about. A pretty good wine bar, Frenchie Barravin. And the coffee shop, Labra Café. Voila voila, on to our next stop, which is the best flan in Paris. Flans are always hit or miss for me. You guys know I hate the eggy texture and flavor of certain flans. I much prefer a creamier, richer flavor of literally anything that's not an egg. So we'll see. I have to say as well, that the pastry shop we're visiting is not number one on the list. It's actually number four. And that's because the competition was for the greater Paris area. But because I wanted to keep this video accessible within the city of Paris, like Arrondissement's one through 20, we're jumping down the line to, I've never been, so I need my notes, a bakery called Maison Del Montel. We're in the ninth. And the flan is by the pastry chef Arnaud Del Montel. And fun fact, actually, in the 90s he went to the US and he actually ran the bakery department at a Whole Foods in Wisconsin. Yeah, Madison, Wisconsin. So that's kind of cool. Kind of a fun side quest. Okay, moment of truth. It doesn't look yellow, which is good. Normally they taste eggy when they're yellow. This one actually looks very much like vanilla. You can see like the vanilla beans. That's actually really good. The texture is so weird. It's not eggy, but it's also not creamy like the bristol. It has like a, it feels like it's a mixture of a creamy and a powdery kind of taste. Is it the best flan I've ever had? No. The bristol still wins. What I don't like about it is that this isn't flaky. It's kind of like goopy. When in my mind, the pâte feuilletée or the pâte in general should be a little bit more hard and also flaky. I also don't like when bakeries put like that sugar goop on top of pastries. Normally you have that on like pain aux raisins. Here the goop is on this. I feel like it's not really necessary. I think we're at the crust. No crunch. Not the best, not the worst. We'll pass it to the expert. For me, first thing, but that mean nothing, it's like the size. Normally, maybe I'm wrong, but like flan are double the size, but that's mean nothing. I also say it's good, so it's good. No, it's really good. You can really taste the vanilla inside. It's really good, but yeah, the real downside, it's like the crust. It's not crunchy. It's like you say, it's... Wet. Wet, yeah. No, I think it's good, but yeah, the crust is not that crunchy. And I think if the crust was crunchy, this will be like a really, really tough flan. I think it will be the first and not the fourth, maybe. One other treat we decided to get from his bakery are the macaroons. And right off the bat, what I really liked when I saw them all in the vitrine, in the display case, is that you can see they're very natural looking. I hate when a macaron has like fluorescent colors, very artificial colors and like sprinkles and sparkles. I much prefer, yeah, like a more artisanal, natural look. We got raspberry, vanilla, caramel, and my favorite, coffee. I'm gonna try another one just to, just to give it a second chance. We'll see what John thinks in a second. I could be crazy, but these are like rocks. They, they almost feel like old. Normally like the inside of a macaron. This part is relatively airy. It's a, it's a light crunch. It's not like a... So weird. Can you try and tell me if I'm crazy? I'm not a fan of macaron, first of all, but yeah, I can hear when you taste this one, it's where it was a bit hard. Yeah, it's weird. The taste is good, but it has a hardness, no? Like it's hard. It's really weird. The taste is good. Like for the raspberry, crunch is really weird. I'm not a fan of this macaron. You wanna try the vanilla? Yeah, why not? Maybe you like the vanilla more. No, you don't. Can you hear? It's maybe less, a bit less hard, but I can't even taste the vanilla. Zero, zero. This one is the worst. It's like a brick, you guys. That outer shell is so hard. I have never had a macaron like this. Good morning, you guys. We're picking up right where we left off, but the next day, because the best baguette and the best pastry in Paris is actually located on the other side of the Seine, on the left bank in the 13th and the 14th, which is quite a ways away from the best croissant and the best flan, the fourth best flan. So it makes sense to break them up. I am gonna take advantage of this break though to remind you guys that the Paris print collab that I'm doing with Laura is now available for purchase on my website. You can grab the poster version of the prints in A3 size on premium semi-glossy paper. The reason why we started to make these prints actually is for the Chouchous, which is a tier on my Patreon. Every month, they get a fine art print sent to them of a painting that Laura does, as well as a handwritten letter from me. And on my Patreon in general, I do a lot of exclusive content, stuff that you won't see on YouTube. So yeah, if you're interested in the print club in that content, then you can check it out. I will leave it linked down below. Voila, voila. I hope you enjoy the art that we're creating and I guess we'll take it back to the best baguette. I say baguette, but we're not actually going to taste a baguette, nor would I recommend that you ever buy a baguette when you're in France or in Paris. Instead, what I would recommend is the baguette tradition. There's a huge, huge difference. And it's funny because when you think of bread icons in Paris directly, you think of the baguette, but the baguette tradition is far superior in quality. There's a higher production standard than you have with the baguette. To summarize, a baguette tradition can only have four ingredients. You have wheat flour, water, salt, and yeast, or sourdough starter. You can't freeze a baguette tradition and they have to go through a very long fermentation process. It's a minimum of 15 hours between kneading the dough and the time you put it in the oven. The baguette, by comparison, can have additives put in. It's made with only white flour, which makes it harder to digest. And they can be frozen. The difference in quality actually makes sense because the baguette was first introduced in 1900 and the baguette tradition almost a century later in 1993. So at least to me, it makes sense that the production standard and the reg... I was gonna say reglamentation. That's the French word. Let's say rules. The rules to follow are more strict, which makes sense. On to our winner. And I apologize in advance if I don't get this right in terms of pronunciation. The baker's name is Sitham Parapillai Jagadeepan and his bakery is called Fournils du Doux in the 14th arrondissement where we are. I have to say that winning this is truly an accomplishment. The winner actually gets to deliver their baguette tradition to the Elysée, which is where the president lives and works for the entire year. And what's interesting is that this was the first year that this baker entered the contest and won, which really is incredible. A little backstory on Sitham Parapillai is that he moved to France from Sri Lanka in 2003 and he started in restoration. He did that for a couple of years. He moved on to making pastries and then eventually opened his own bakery in 2018. And I think his story is really inspiring, especially for someone like me who is an immigrant and a time when immigration can be controversial. I think it's so cool to see how someone moved to France who had to learn the culture, learn the cuisine, integrate and ultimately won one of the highest awards in bread making. All right, I kid you not, you guys, y'all and I have walked around for 40 minutes trying to find a park where we can taste these beautiful baguettes in. And we've landed here, which is beside a construction site in front of garbage cans and beside the road. So hopefully the sound is okay. But yeah, every park we went to was either in the scorching sun, no shade, or under construction. The location doesn't really matter. What matters is how beautiful these traditions look. I don't know if you could hear that, but there's a really yummy crunch. The crust is not too hard, but hard enough that you know it's gonna be good. The best part of the baguette, in my opinion, is the crouton, this top part right here. I came prepared. We've got Jean's favorite combo, butter and chocolate spread. I say chocolate spread, but actually Jean was telling me that a goûter for kids in France, so afternoon snack, is baguette with butter, everything toasted and kind of warm with chocolate, like chocolate bars on the inside. Because it's breakfast, I felt like chocolate bars would be a bit much. I guess we can actually try the baguette without anything first. It's so good. And honestly, if it's good enough for the French president, it's good enough for me. I'm gonna give it to Jean. So first impression, I really like the visual because the inside is like airy and not full of bread. So I prefer this, this kind of baguette, but yeah, it's really good. The crunch is good. No, it's, and for the first baguette, one euro 30, it's expectation in Paris, I think. And also just, I think it will be better, like just when it just came out of the oven. I think this will be like a bit hot. It will be perfect. And other thing, when you go to a bakery in France or everywhere, you can ask for a more cooked tradition or less cooked tradition. It depends of what you like. Those are actually some really good points that Jean made when it comes to over and under cooked and why you would order that. It's all based on the crust. Like if you want your baguette more cooked, then the exterior will be a little bit harder, a little crunchier, a little darker. Whereas if you get it less cooked, it's gonna look more white and it'll be a little bit less crunchy. My preference is bien cuit, well cooked, more cooked. And yeah, I just wanted to touch on the price as well because I think it's interesting that they haven't inflated their prices. Normally when you win an award like this, I would imagine that you would double your price, but no, one euro 30 is very much like the standard price of a baguette tradition in Paris. Okay, let's add some butter and Nutella. So this is the butter I brought from home. It's demi-sel, salted butter, always. It's not very aesthetic. I think I need to make a second one, that's so good. I'm in the sun, so that's why I have a beautiful hat. This is perfection. The combo between butter, the salted butter and sweet spread, I love this. This combo and because also the tradition is really good, like it's like heaven. There you have it, 10 out of 10. You gotta visit this bakery. All right, we're on our way to our last stop, which I'm the most excited for. It's the best pastries in all of Paris. We're in the 13th, on our way to the Boulangerie Patisserie Laurette, where we'll taste the creations by Chef Philippe Arzac, who's only 25 years old. Now for this competition, the chefs had to make two iconic French pastries. One, the chocolate eclair and two, a lemon tart without a meringue. And the reason that his creations beat out the rest is number one, the chocolate eclair is actually made with a chocolate flavored choux pastry, which is pretty rare. And the glaze on top was a caramel-based chocolate glaze. And then for the lemon tart, he added bergamot on top, which added freshness. Jean's gonna hate these. He hates dark chocolate. He hates anything that has citrus, but I'm in love. Lemon tart, one of my favorites. So here's what they look like. Honestly, visually, these look to be of incredibly high quality. First things first, let's try the chocolate eclair. So you can see, this is the choux pastry that's chocolate. Normally you'd have just a regular like white colored choux pastry. Very good. The choux pastry is a little bit less airy than what I would have imagined. It's quite dense. It's very rich. And this glaze tastes a lot more like North American icing than a French glaze, which I find very interesting. It is a little wet, which I think is weird for a choux pastry, but it's also maybe the fact that we're trying these at like 4 p.m. And they were probably made this morning. But yeah, we'll see what Jean thinks. Okay, so I can't judge this because I'm really not a fan of chocolate. So I don't really like this. But yeah, I see what you're saying by it's all wet. It's like, yeah, like this. But yeah, I think it's because it's four and they are probably made this morning. So I think it's why. Maybe try this sooner in the day. But yeah, maybe it's good. I can't tell because I really don't like chocolate. I'm sorry. You can taste the caramel, like you say. But for me, it's too heavy in chocolate. I can't. Like one bite and that's it for me. Okay. Now, before we move on to the next item, which is this beautiful lemon tart, I do just want to say once again, that yes, we maybe aren't doing this bakery justice by trying the pastry so late in the afternoon. Maybe we'll do a taste test. Maybe I'll come back next week. But I think that would be, or taste a lot more fresh early in the morning. That said, the flavor's delicious. If you like chocolate, you will love that. Like I really enjoyed it for sure. For sure. Anyways, onto the lemon tart. I don't know how I feel about that. It's really good. There's no doubt. Like it tastes very fresh. It tastes like a natural lemon. It's not a lot of sugar. It's not a lot of, I don't think it's any artificial flavors. I think it's throwing me off because normally I get the tartelette au citron with the meringue on top because I really like meringue. So maybe I feel like it's missing that. But no, honestly, it's good. It's really good. You can see here, there's like, I think that's a layer of lemon jelly maybe. Yeah, honestly, it's very good. I think I'm finding this video very interesting because Jean and I tasted a lot of bakeries, a lot of pastries, a lot of food things in Paris. And so I think now at this point it's really hard to blow my mind, especially when it's just a basic, iconic but basic lemon tart. I'm not going to finish it because two whole pastries to myself is a little excessive. So I guess that brings us to the end of today's video. One thing that I want to mention, or at least that comes to mind now that we've tasted all these different places is that the governing body for the best pastries and breads and all of that in Paris and in France is the Baker's Union for independent bakeries. So that's why, for example, when we tried the flan, the brisole wasn't on the list because that's not an independent baker and bakery. It's a bakery for a hotel, five-star hotel. I think we have to be careful when we're saying the best in Paris because it's not all encompassing. It's not every single flan in Paris that they've evaluated. It's only people who've applied and people who are represented by the Baker's Union. Like, yeah, they have to be independent. They have to bake and sell in Paris. They can't like bake outside and bring everything in. So yeah, the pastries, the bread, it's all very good. But I don't think that you could fairly quantify it as like the 100% best in Paris. I think it would be impossible to do that. And I don't think there's an actual competition that evaluates every single pastry in the city. Those are my closing thoughts. But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed today's video and coming around Paris with us to try all these delicious treats. Once again, as a reminder, I will leave my Patreon link down below and my website where you can purchase the prints, my Instagram if you want to follow me there, and all of the Shopmy links. So now in every single video, I am linking everything I'm wearing, whether that's lip gloss, lip oil, makeup, outfits, all that will be linked down below if you're curious. And yeah, I hope you guys have a great weekend. Let me know what you think of this video and what you think of these places and I'll see you soon.