The Look Book Goes to the Best Baguette in New York Competition (2024)

Bread lovers voted for bakeries like Frenchette in French Morning’s annual contest.

By Kelsie Schrader, managing editor at the Strategist. She also conducts interviews for “The Look Book.”

Photo: Frankie Alduino

The Look Book Goes to the Best Baguette in New York Competition (5)

Photo: Frankie Alduino

Donna Soloway (pictured above)
Board member and writer, Midtown East

What brings you here?
I’m a Francophile. I’m a fluent French speaker, I read in French constantly, and I read about this event on the website French Morning. I thought, How big could it be? Maybe three, four manufacturers? Well, there were like more than 30 baguette-makers here, and I was surprised because a lot of them were very good.

Do you like living in Midtown East?
It’s not the Upper East Side. Upper East Side girls are different. Midtown girls go to all the places — we go north, south, west. Upper East Side girls don’t go out of their way. And actually, we live in Truman Capote’s old building. We have two towers, and Truman lived in mine.

By the way, I love your hat.
I wear newsboy hats all the time. I have the same model in different styles — a patent-leather one, one in black, one in red. I have a guy who makes them all for me. He goes by the name Kokin.

Nicole Lane Fulmer

Event planner, Greenpoint

Franky Liang

Engineer, Prospect Heights

Jun Yang

Opera singer, Bayside

What was the best thing you ate?

Orwashers’ baguette. We took one bite and were like, “Holy crap, it’s so good.” There was a certain fragrance. Maybe it was the brick oven they used or the wood, but there was a smoky taste in the bread. It had a very good ratio of crunchy outside to soft inside.

Fel Cassieli

Bakery owner, Soho

Congrats on winning Best Baguette!

It was such a surprise. It’s the biggest honor. I opened my bakery, Crispy Heaven, three years ago. I learned to bake bread by myself. Running the bakery was getting a little bit tough for me lately, so winning this is what I needed.

Jessica Cigale

Psychotherapist, Upper West Side

Dominique Lavoie

Luxury-real-estate adviser, Lincoln Square

Alexis Allen

Financial analyst, Upper West Side

Noah Jackson

Strategist, Bushwick

Elaine Huie Chang

Stand-up comedian and yoga teacher, Chelsea

Tell me about your work.

I just started doing stand-up in November. I turned 50 in August, and I was like, “Let’s try new things. Let’s be brave.” So I took a writing class. My other classmates were all nervous because they were trying to perfect their writing. But for me, I just took it as a “f*ck it” exercise. I just performed at Gotham Comedy Club, and they keep inviting me back.

Christina Cheung

Crypto lawyer, Financial District

Sianna Peal

Digital director, Jersey City

Laura Bahor

Market researcher, Orlando, Florida

Would you say you’re a bread connoisseur?

Yes, as weird as that sounds. I had my first French baguette at the French Pavilion at Epcot. That was probably the first time I had really good bread and appreciated it. Other than that, there’s no good bread where we live in Florida.

Clement Delisle

Data scientist, Williamsburg

Kenza Adeïda

Art dealer, Chinatown

Gracie Liu

Product designer, Crown Heights

Richard Soloway

Security-technology CEO, Midtown East

Andrew Ulbrich

Law associate, Kips Bay

Was today what you expected?

I envisioned a long banquet table with ten or so different types of baguettes and a section with charcuterie and wine at the end. I didn’t expect it to be so extensive. And in the last 20 minutes, a lot of the bakeries had a bunch of extra bread left over so they started giving it away. That’s how I ended up with seven baguettes in my bag.

Caroline Bahor

Third-grader, Orlando, Florida

Photographs by Frankie Alduino

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