La Boulangerie de François and Frenchette Bakery received an award in the competition for the best kouign in New York

Sunday October 13, all New York Brittany gathered at the Chelsea Market in Manhattan for a special event: the fourth edition of the competition for the best kouign-amann in the city. An event organized by the BZH New York association and supported by the British brand Paysan Breton.

Of the seven bakeries that entered the competition, only four were present: Atelier Sucré and its chef Simon Herfray, La Boulangerie by François Danielo, Frenchette Bakery by Peter Edric and Johann Cottier, and NinaLou by Laurent Carratie.

Eat Offbeat’s first at Chelsea Market

Despite the fact that some candidates were not there, the public was there and especially won the event. ” By 3pm, we reached 400 visitors and started running out of cakes », cheers Sophie Raubiet, president of BZH New York. ” Generally, we reach 400 people around 4pm, just before the end of the screening and the start of the discussion. This is the first year we have held the competition at the Eat Offbeat restaurant in Chelsea Market. And apparently, it is successful! »

Among the many visitors, there were only French. Sasha and Vaani are Indian and came across the incident a few days ago while surfing the internet. The two sisters do not know much about Brittany and have never heard of kouign-aman. ” It’s really cool and incredibly light, we’ve never had anything like this before », she says, who are now big fans of the British specialty.

Like them, the guests were able to taste the products of each bakery before voting for their favourite. After a tasting session from noon to 4 p.m., shortened by an hour due to stock shortages, the big winners were announced around 4:30 p.m.

With fleur de sel or apples

The public award was awarded to Frenchette Bakery, with an honorable mention to La Boulangerie de François. Six pastry professionals, including the winner of the 2023 edition Nicolas Buchot and Montreal-based kouign-amann expert Nicolas Henry, also voted to select the “best traditional kouign-amann”. In this category, La Boulangerie de François was named the winner and Frenchette Bakery received the honorable mention.

Results that will please the winners. ” We have been perfecting our recipe for four years, airier than the traditional version. », says Johann Cottier from Frenchette Bakery. ” When we cook, we put a big lump of butter and sugar with a little fleur de sel. Once it is ready, you leave in the middle with butter and sugar. It is still a light product, even if it is kouign-amann »

« This year, I wanted to innovate. I love apples, I think the caramel-apple combination works well. At the bakery, we already offer a new apple fritter which is very successful, so we tried the apple kouign-aman. I took the risk of entering the competition and it worked », welcomes François Danielo from La Boulangerie de François.

The first edition of the competition was held in 2021. At the time, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs visiting New York, wanted to taste kouign-amanns the town An informal competition was then established, before it was made official. From now on, BZH New York is considering organizing it only once every two years, to make it an even more important event.