Boulangerie Utopie
Xavier Netry's baguette de tradition beat 173 others to the city of Paris's 2024 Grand Prix, scoring five out of five on all five things the jury marks: bake, taste, crumb, aeration and looks.1 He is the chef boulanger at Utopie, on the corner of rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud in the 11th.1
Why go
Erwan Blanche and Sébastien Bruno met at pastry school and opened this bakery in 2013, and the neighborhood knew it for the pâtisserie long before the bread won anything.1 The competition is run by the city with the Syndicat des Boulangers du Grand Paris, and before a jury tastes anything a tradition baguette has to weigh between 250 and 270 grams and measure between 50 and 55 centimeters.2 Netry's won the 31st edition, took 4,000 euros, and put the shop's bread on the Élysée's table for a year.1 Sesame runs through everything else here, including a sourdough baguette colored black with charcoal.3
Order this / avoid
- The baguette de tradition, which is the one that won.1
- The sesame éclair, nutty and only just sweet.3
- The charcoal sourdough baguette, black through the crumb.3
- The flan, which Time Out calls phenomenal, or the strawberry and cinnamon tart.4
- Check what is baking at the weekend. The specials change every week and the shop posts them as they come out.3
What locals & experts say
- Xavier Netry, when the city told him he had won: "Tout content et tout foufou… Je suis absolument ravi et très fier, car c'est un prix très convoité !" Delighted, slightly unhinged about it, and proud, because the prize is one everybody wants.1
- The city of Paris on the margin: "Celle-ci a reçu un 5 sur 5 sur tous les critères du concours : qualité de la cuisson, goût, consistance de la mie, alvéolage et aspect." Five out of five on every criterion.1
- The Infatuation's Emily Monaco, on the queue that was there before the prize:
their out-of-the-box approach has had locals lining up here for years.
3 - And on what the bakers do when nobody stops them:
On weekends, bakers take a page out of Willy Wonka's playbook with ever-changing viennoiserie, pastry, and bread 'du weekend,' each one zanier than the next.
3 - Time Out Paris, at number fourteen on its 2026 bakery list, on the bill:
Compared to other pricey pastries in the city, Utopie is very affordable.
4
Good to know
- The prize is a 2024 prize and the Élysée contract that came with it ran for a year. Neither is a claim about what is in the oven today.
- La Maison Doré in the 5th, La Parisienne in the 7th, Boulangerie Rougès in the 17th and L'Écrin Gourmand in the 12th took the rest of that year's top five, if you are working through them.2
- They twist croissant dough into chocolate-filled flowers and into tartlets filled with rice pudding.3
- Hygiene: I have not read a French inspection record for this shop, so I have nothing to report either way.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Best baguette award 2024"
Verdict
should-visit — Buy the tradition baguette and then something with sesame in it. Xavier Netry won the city's 2024 baguette prize out of 173 entries with a five out of five on every criterion the jury scores, which put the shop's bread in the Élysée for a year. Time Out's bakery list says it is cheaper than most of its rivals, which for this street is the surprise.