<story><title>The Perfect French Baguette</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190825-the-perfect-french-baguette</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tomlockwood</author><text>&amp;gt; In addition to winning this illustrious competition, Bouattour and M’Seddi have a few other things in common. Both forewent the traditional trade school that many aspiring French bakers enter at age 16. Both have been professional bakers for less than a decade (as has this year’s winner, former engineer Fabrice Leroy). And both are first-generation Frenchmen with what Bouattour euphemistically dubs ‘origins’: family backgrounds from elsewhere – or in their cases, Tunisia.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “I stopped thinking of myself as a foreigner a long time ago, but my origins make me the person I am today,” he said. “We all start with the same tools, the same teachers, but some people are going to understand things differently. That has nothing to do with origins; that’s just talent.”&lt;p&gt;For all the rhetoric on the right about how people from other cultures are not &amp;quot;suitable&amp;quot; for &amp;quot;western&amp;quot; countries - some of the proudest citizens and torch-carriers for tradition, are foreigners.&lt;p&gt;It also absolutely works both ways - Australia was virulently anti Italian and Greek in the 50s and 60s.  Now we almost couldn&amp;#x27;t imagine brunch without espresso and feta on our smashed avocado. The diversity made us better.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Perfect French Baguette</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190825-the-perfect-french-baguette</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Mathnerd314</author><text>This article reads like the quotes in &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;1995&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;chess&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;1995&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;chess&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; about how computers would never beat people at chess. Winning at chess required &amp;quot;fantasy&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;creativity&amp;quot; and here baking requires &amp;quot;passion&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;magic&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;bread-making-robot-makes-everyone-at-ces-2019-trash-their-no-carb-new-year-resolution&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;bread-making-robot-makes-everyone-...&lt;/a&gt; is a fully-automated bakery, although it doesn&amp;#x27;t produce baguettes, and &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=5zfb456YrsM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=5zfb456YrsM&lt;/a&gt; is half-automated from dough to finish; maybe we&amp;#x27;ll get a IBM Watson-style &amp;quot;robot bread&amp;quot; entry in the competition sometime.</text></comment>