BREAD WARS

After a year spent in Italy studying for a Master’s Degree, I've moved to Paris. It’s a nice change.

Northern Italians don’t take bread particularly seriously. Like their Tuscan neighbours, the bakers of Emilia Romagna churn out saltless balls with a rock hard crust and an interior not unlike the filling of an energy-saving lagging jacket. The premise behind these knurled atrocities is that they be used to help mop up a last blob of ragù, or accompany some salty salumi. A bit like an ice cream cone that has been held by a grubby-handed shop assistant, you’re more likely to enjoy what this vessel has scooped up, rather than the vessel itself.

As I chop and change apartments in Paris, the first thing I do in a new area is find my boulangerie. Often, when I’m too hungry to cook, a baguette de tradition (a standardised €1.10 in boulangeries throughout Paris) becomes a complete meal – sometimes with a little cheese or butter, but most often without. Bread – or grain to be more precise - and the role it played in the French Revolution has been widely documented by food academics and historians. Today, the French maintain a love affair with good bread so that, in the ongoing gastronomic duel between these two neighbouring nations, it’s France 1, Italy Nil.

Katie Phelan, FOOD WRITER