Debout les pains

Rise and shine, dough lovers! The call to floury arms has sounded for Christelle Tessier (a former banker) and Sami Akkas (with a background in the cultural sector), now neo-kneaders shaping beautiful loaves of bread at Debout Les Pains. The duo first got their hands in the flour at Mouillette in Enghien-les-Bains and Farine in Le Pré-Saint-Gervas, before taking over a former bakery from the 1960s in Pantin. All that was left to do was freshen up the red brick pillars and wheat-colored walls, before firing up their oven, fueled on organic flours sourced from Biocer, a Normandy-based co-op. What should you expect? Rustic country loaves, a distinctive khorasan wheat bread, méteil loaves (made from a mix of wheat and rye flours), chestnut flour bread, rice flour bread with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and perfectly hydrated whole grain einkorn bread… And if you want a sweet treat that won’t overload you on sugar, there’s lemon-poppyseed babka, intensely flavorful buckwheat chocolate cookies, glistening pompe à huile brioche or vanilla granola. // Angela Dolu

THE HIDDEN GEM: Their shokupan, the famous Japanese milk bread, that’s as soft as a pillow (served by the slice, €11/kg).