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French bakers make world's longest baguette, beating Italy

PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) - French bakers cooked the world's longest baguette on Sunday at 140.53 metres (461 ft), reclaiming a record for one of the nation's best-known emblems taken by Italy for five years.
Reuters
The French baguette gets UNESCO world heritage status epa10339197 French baguettes are on display to be sold in The French Bastards bakery in Paris, France, 30 November 2022. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO announced that French baguette gets world heritage status. EPA-EFE/YOAN VALAT

The baguette, about 235 times longer than the traditional one, was made in Suresnes in the suburbs of Paris during an event for the French confederation of bakers and pastry chefs.

The previous longest baguette of 132.62 meters was baked in the Italian city of Como in June 2019.

To better that, the French bakers began kneading and shaping the dough at 3 a.m. before putting it in a specially-built slow-moving oven on wheels.

"Everything has been validated, we are all very happy to have beaten this record and that it was done in France," Anthony Arrigault, one of the bakers, said after the baguette was approved by the Guinness World Records judge.

Part of the baguette, which had to be at least 5 cm thick throughout, was cut and shared with the public.

The rest was to be given to homeless people.

The traditional French baguette must be about 60 cm long, be made from wheat flour, water, salt and yeast only, and weigh about 250 grammes, according to the official regulation.

(Reporting by Louise Dalmasso, writing by Sybille de La Hamaide, editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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Howard L. 6 May 2024 02:40 PM

Would have been nice to see a photo of the event / baguette and not a pic of what my local bakery has.