A breadwinner from Senegal masters the crusty Paris baguette

The best baguette in Paris can officially be found at Le Grenier a Pain, a bakery in Montmartre, the hilly area that was once a refuge for Impressionists. The bread's crust is deep gold and crisp; its inside, riddled with irregular holes, melts without sticking to the palate - a far cry from the industrial loaves that have sprawled across the French capital.

Senegalese-born Djibril Bodian beat 230 other bakers last month to the annual Best Paris Baguette prize, receiving €4,000 and the honour of supplying the Elysee for a year. The 38-year-old baker, who also won the contest in 2010, is a perfectionist. That day, he cooked his baguettes a bit longer than usual because it was raining and humidity in the air threatened to soften up the crust.

"Every step counts in bread-making," he told me after a morning shift last week, his sparkling eyes showing no trace of getting up at 2am. "What I like in bread making is creation, that alchemy between ingredients as basic as flour, salt, water and yeast."

Mr Bodian's story is not just one of culinary prowess. His prize underlines how immigrants have thrived by investing in one of the most potent symbols of French culture. Bakeries, which produce about 6bn baguettes a year, provide an environment where integration seems to be working - a glimmer of hope as France reflects on the failings of its model in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, perpetrated by three terrorists born into immigrant families.

A child born to African parents is twice as likely to be undereducated, unemployed and endure discrimination as a child born into a French family, according to data compiled by France Strategies, a think-tank affiliated to the government. But Mr Bodian, who moved from Senegal to Pantin, a northern Parisian suburb, when he was six, says there is no such thing as discrimination in the bakery business: "It is so difficult to find a good baker that there are no barriers for the ones who work hard and well," Mr Bodian said. "It's one area where you can still climb the social ladder, become your own boss."

The list of the competition's previous winners is ethnically diverse. Last year, the first prize was awarded to Antonio Teixeira, a Portuguese baker in the 14th arrondissement. In 2013, the winner was Tunisian-born Ridha Khadher, also in the 14th.

Mr Khadher's victory highlights Tunisians' push in the city's baguette business, a trend most Parisians have experienced first hand in the past years. In the 10th arrondissement, the "Gratecap" bakery, where my grandfather used to get his daily baguette, and on Sundays his eclair au chocolat, was taken over by Abdelmajid Azlouk in 2011. Born in Tunisia's southern town of Ben Gardene near the Libyan border, he emigrated two decades ago to work in his brother-in-law's bakery in northern Paris. Not much has changed since he settled in the neighbourhood. The eclairs au chocolat and other must-haves, such as raspberry and lemon tarts, are still on display. "This is a French area, we're doing French pastries," Mr Azlouk told me.

For the Bodians, bread is also a family affair. Mr Bodian's father, also a baker, found him a place as an intern in the Pantin bakery that employed him and his other son. Soon after, Djibril became an apprentice in the Grenier a Pain and has since risen to become the manager. A few years ago, he signed a deal with the owners to buy the business from them, a plan he intends to follow through next year.

Winning a second best-baguette prize should help: it has boosted the bakery's already well-established reputation and lengthened the queues in the mornings. In the weeks that followed the competition, he sold as many as 2,200 baguettes a day, up from an average of 1,000, he said. Mr Bodian now supervises more than a dozen employees, including his older brother, who is in charge of the pastries, and his younger sister who helps with customers. He allows himself a two-hour nap every day in his apartment at the back of the bakery, and finds it "hard to delegate".

He would not be able to do the job properly if he worked the 35-hour week required by French law, he said. "That's why it's so important I have my brother and sister with me. I know they won't count their hours either."

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