East Cambridge’s Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain began as an attempt to emulate a Parisian baguette-baking competition – in East Cambridge. This Sunday, the festival switches gears and asks professional bakers to submit their best croissant in competition.
“We thought that if people saw the exact same thing every year – saw baguettes every year – they would get bored,” said Teddy Applebaum, co-owner of Elmendorf Baking Supplies with his wife Alyssa. “We’re trying to inject some energy into its veins this year with croissants.”
The festival and competition were founded in 2023 by Elmendorf and are co-hosted with the East Cambridge Business Association. Along with the food vendors and baking competition, the festival boasts live music – French jazz – as well as local artists and artisans.
The competition has grown each year, with more vendors and attendees. Some 6,000 people throng a stretch of road closed to cars, open to carbs.
“We thought it’d be cool to have the contest just in the middle of the street, having professional bakers drop off baguettes that year, and then get amateurs involved with it too, because we’re a shop for home bakers,” Applebaum said of the festival’s launch. “And then have a giant street festival around it, because you’ve gotta have a party, right?”
As the pros switch to croissants this year, amateurs are asked to bring in their best demi baguettes. There are judging panels for each competition. This year’s professional panel includes Maura Kilpatrick, Jeffery Alexander, Rachel Sundet and Brian Mercury. The amateur panel includes Andrew Janjigian, Maria Speck, Sheryl Julian, Jason Bond, Adam Ried and Sophie Gees.
“All of us people in the baking business, you just have to get through every day. It’s not often you can revisit what you do and get inspired to improve something you’ve been doing every day,” Applebaum said.
Winning the professional competition can be a boost for a bakery. Last year’s winner, Daisy Chow of Breadboard, gained a lot of publicity for having the best baguette.
“She’s got this little out-of-the-way storefront in Arlington, and a lot of people had never heard of her,” Applebaum said. “She’s absolutely one of the best bread bakers in Boston, and now people know a little more who might have missed it.”
The event invites bakers from across Massachusetts; in previous years they have traveled from Cape Cod and Newburyport to submit baguettes and find what the area has to offer.
“East Cambridge can be a little bit out of the way for a lot of people, and I think it caused a ton of people to come over there,” Applebaum said. “It hammers home the fact that East Cambridge is one of the best neighborhood communities in the city.”
The 2025 Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain is from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Cambridge and Eighth streets, rain or shine.
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