The contested history of the baguette

Like many symbols of ‘Frenchness’, such as the Gallic Rooster or the Phrygian Cap, the origins of the baguette are obscure and contested. What we do know is that this bread probably isn’t as old as you might think. In fact, France’s reputation for culinary expertise and extravagance is only a couple of centuries old. But among the pantheon of pastries, patisserie and luxury cuisine, the humble baguette, which was officially made a ‘cultural treasure’ by the French Ministry of Culture in 1993, is probably the most famous and most frequently eaten.

Next time you’re eating a baguette, give some thought to where it comes from - and which of these origin stories you find most convincing.

The invention of the baguette is often connected with that other icon of French history: Napoleon Bonaparte. The story goes that Bonaparte considered standard bread loaves to be too cumbersome and unshapely for his soldiers, and so passed a law decreeing that the bread baked for the military must fit into the dep pockets of their uniforms - hence the baguette’s long, thin shape. (And anyone who’s ever eaten a stale baguette can attest to its usefulness as a weapon, too!)

Some think the baguette predates Napoleon, and was a product of the French Revolution. Because baguettes are made from lean dough, they can be produced in large quantities, making them cheaper than many of the forms of bread that were popular before the Revolution. In 1793, the new Revolutionary Government declared that ‘Richness and poverty must both disappear from the government of equality. It will no longer make a bread of wheat for the rich and a bread of bran for the poor. All bakers will be held, under the penalty of imprisonment, to make only one type of bread: The Bread of Equality.’

Yet another theory attributes the invention of the baguette to the building of the Paris metro. Fights between workers were prevalent, and often deadly, as the workers often carried knives to cut the bread they ate for lunch. The lead engineer for the Metro, a certain Fulgence Bienvenüe, therefore ordered the bakers to bake a bread that did not require a knife to be cut.

Yet another theory states that in 1839, the Austrian baker August Zang brought a long, tubular bread from his homeland that wowed the local populace with its short rising and cooking time. The bread quickly exploded in popularity, but it wasn’t until 1920 that the bread was first called ‘baguette’, which means a kind of wand or baton. This was when a new law was passed to the effect that bakeries could not open before 4am, meaning it was essential to popularise a bread that could be baked in a relatively short space of time.

Whatever and whenever the exact origins, it didn’t take long for the baguette to rise to the top of the French gastronomic hierarchy, and nowadays over 10 billion baguettes are eaten every year in France alone. It’s also become a staple food around the world, and is used in one of Vietnam’s most famous dishes, bánh mì.