Toronto's best baguette and croissant to be crowned once and for all next month

Some of the best bakeries in the GTA are gathering under one roof next month to determine, once and for all, who really makes Toronto's best baguette and croissant.

Everybody in Toronto has their opinions — and lots of them — on who makes the best, well, everything. Hell, we even publish them. Sometimes, though, it's more satisfying to have a firm, as-objective-as-possible answer than having to wade through the bog of subjectivity.

That's exactly why French Morning, a U.S.-based French language news site, is bringing its annual Best Croissant and Best Baguette competition to Toronto. So help us, this city will identify its best boulangerie one way or another.

Taking place on Sunday, Oct. 4., 500 taste-testers and a panel of professionals will get to work sampling baguettes and croissants from nearly a dozen bakeries in Toronto and the surrounding area before gathering the votes and crowning, once and for all, the bakeries that do them best.

The sweetest part of all? You can sign up to be a member of the 500-person-tasting party yourself. Tickets, which grant you samples of every competing baguette and croissant and the opportunity to name the best baguette- and croissant-makers in the city, are available online for just $30.

During the competition, attendees will be able to peruse stalls for each bakery and sample the goods on offer, later casting their votes for their favourite baguette and croissant. The bakeries that rack up the most attendee votes will receive Public's Prize.

At the same time, the jury, consisting of chefs and food critics, will undergo a blind taste test, eventually crowning the recipients of the Grand Jury prizes for the best croissant and best baguette in Toronto.

It's certain to be a tight competition, with a lineup of 11 finalists, voted on by French Morning readers, consisting of local staples Tangssant Viennoiserie, Gouter, Nadege, HV Bakery, Bakery Pompette, Evana Patisserie, French Made and Chokwoklat.

Out-of-town competitors: Waterloo's Maison Kookoo, Oakville's Tatin Bakehouse and Fonthill's The Baking Bar are also joining the fight. Will Toronto's best baguette and croissant prove to come from bakeries that aren't in Toronto at all? We'll all just have to wait and see.

The Best Croissant and Best Baguette in Toronto competition is taking place between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Ricarda's Restaurant on Sunday, Oct. 4.