Paris has a new king of the crusty baguette.

Baker Xavier Netry was chosen this week as the 31st winner of Paris’s annual Grand Prix de la baguette prize.

Baker Xavier Netry in Paris
Baker Xavier Netry in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)

His long loaf beat 172 others.

Competing baguettes were evaluated for taste, look, texture, airiness and the quality of the baking.

Baker Xavier Netry makes baguettes in the Utopie bakery in Paris
Baker Xavier Netry makes baguettes in the Utopie bakery in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)

The jury included a deputy mayor, industry representatives, journalists and six Parisians that City Hall said were drawn at random.

The Utopie bakery in Paris’s 11th district that Mr Netry works for wins 4,000 euros (£3,427) and becomes one of the suppliers of the presidential Elysee Palace for a year.

Customers in the Utopie bakery in Paris
Customers in the Utopie bakery in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)

City Hall said uneaten baguettes from the competition were donated to a charity that feeds people who are homeless.

Mr Netry, a baker for 25 years, said the secrets of his success are a good sourdough starter and “a good long fermentation”, careful cooking and “some love and some passion, of course”.