Paris’s ‘Best Baguette’ Baker Selvarajah in Colombo

Sri Lankan Baker Tharshan Selvarajah who won Paris’s ‘Best Baguette’ award for 2023 arrived at the Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport yesterday morning. The prize was 4,000 Euros and a year-long contract to supply baguettes to the President of France at the Élysée Palace.

Tharshan Selvarajah, a resident of Thellipalai in Jaffna, arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday with his wife and children for a three-week visit. He told the media at the BIA premises that he went to France in 2016. He said that he didn’t know to speak French and how to work in a bakery when he arrived in France. However, he managed to join at Au Levain des Pyrénées on the eastern side of Paris.The owner is a very friendly person. He taught me French as well as the bakery industry. Now the owner is 70 years and I have been able to purchase that bakery three years back.

There are 1,300 government-registered bakery producers in Paris, France. However, I have been able to win Paris’s ‘Best Baguette’ award by competing with them.That is why I have been assigned the responsibility of supplying bakery products including “baguette” bread to the French President’s residence for one year.

When the information about Tharshan Selvarajah’s achievements was reported, Druvi Gunasekara went to Paris, France to meet him and organized this visit to Sri Lanka.