Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain, coming June 14 to East Cambridge, keeps growing in its fourth year. The festival and competition – inspired by a Paris baguette-baking contest – will be packed on Cambridge Street with more food and retail vendors, performers, bakers and, organizers expect, attendees.
The launch drew around 5,000 to 6,000 people, which leaped to 8,000 in year two and to about 10,000 last year. “It would be hard to imagine attendance increasing, yet somehow it does every year,” said Teddy Applebaum, founder of Elmendorf Baking Supplies and the Gran Prix with his wife, Alyssa.
The numbers of professional bakers competing fluctuates, but this year is expected to hit 17 to 20, larger than usual, while the amateur contestants remains at 50 – capped because “judges can only taste so much bread before they revolt,” Teddy Applebaum said.
Gran Prix partner the East Cambridge Business Association highlighted the French-inspired food vendors taking part around the competition – crepe makers, pastry makers, purveyors of the Swiss melted-cheese dish raclette and chocolatiers prominent among them.
Some attendees this year will be in a rare position to judge the Gran Prix for authenticity: Just 10 days after the Gran Prix, France plays Norway at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro for the 2026 World Cup soccer competition.
Crepes and other French cooking are popular during Gran Prix street festivals. (Photo: Marc Levy)“There may be a ton of French tourists in the area at the time of this event, who will hopefully not be offended by our take on their great celebration,” Applebaum said.
French tourists also have to forgive the Gran Prix drifting from its origins as a baguette competition. The challenge for professionals this year is around mastery of sourdough boules, while amateurs compete to make seeded sandwich loaves.
“We heard some feedback that people were getting a little bit bored” with baguettes, Applebaum said. “Last year we switched up to croissants, which is super French, but this year we decided that the one thing every bakery does, even though it’s not French, is a sourdough loaf. We’re giving people who aren’t as European-inspired to showcase what they do. We thought it’d be the most inclusive possible option, and it’s definitely proved to be popular.”
On the amateur side, the challenge emphasizes bakers’ creativity and showcases fresh-milled flour such as can be found at Elmendorf. The pan loaf lets people use more whole wheat and choose their own seed mix, which “will give some personality lacking in the contest the last couple years on the amateur side” – though the unique nature of each baked good can complicate judging.
Presumably this year’s judges are up to the task. Some have participated in past Gran Prix events, and the panel always includes cookbook authors. Ari Smolin, who worked with Roxana Jullapat on “Morning Baker,” is among the group, and Andrew Janjigian, formerly of Cook’s Illustrated, who has a book coming out in the fall. The full list of judges is coming together, Applebaum said.
In the Paris edition of the Gran Prix, the winner becomes official supplier of the French presidential residence for the year; here, the winner of the professional category is expected to again become official bread supplier to the Boston Consulate General of France.
Local artists and musicians will set up at the Gran Prix alongside food and wine vendors that so far include:
Amba, Batifol, Ben’s Raclette, Breadboard Bakery, Café Sauvage Boston, Clear Flour Bread, Colette Bakery, Crepe Du jour, Eastern Standard, Filarmonica Santo Antonio Inc, Formaggio Kitchen, Gräem Nuts and Chocolate, Highland Butcher Shop, Honeycomb Creamery, La Saison Bakery, La Voile, Lakon Paris, Michette, Momma’s Grocery + Wine, Nouvé Bakery, Nouvelle Maison, Praline, PRB Boulangerie, Somerville Chocolate, Waffle Cabin and Wild Pops.
Before opening Elmendorf in a former Petsi Pies location at 594 Cambridge St. in 2018, the Applebaums worked at Formaggio, Cambridge’s Huron Village cheese shop. Formaggio collaborates this year with Iggy’s Bread to offer a presale Parisian Picnic Box of three cheeses, fruit and a minibaguette.
Now at home in East Cambridge, the Applebaums are adding to the neighborhood’s gourmet luster: The Mushroom Shop, run by Tyler Akabane in Somerville’s Winter Hill since May 2022, expects to move between July and October to 484 Cambridge St., near Elmendorf, where the Courthouse Fish Market operated for 112 years before closing in 2024.
Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain, noon to 4 p.m. June 14 at Cambridge Street between Fulkerson and Fifth streets, East Cambridge. Free. There is no rain date.
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