Can you name a more quintessential French food?

The recipe is quite simple.

You just need flour, water, yeast, and salt.

Yet, here in France, it's not just any loaf of bread

that anybody can make at home.

We're in Paris in the 14th district,

and we're about to meet with Mahmoud M'seddi.

He's an artisanal baker, son of a baker,

who's been making bread basically

ever since he can remember.

This is his shop.

Let's walk in.

[bread crackling] Mahmoud is a master of bread.

Look at this giant loaf!

He even won an award for the best baguette in Paris.

What he's going to show us is not your average baguette,

but the baguette tradition,

which is a baguette made on-site with simple ingredients.

Claudia: Making a baguette is much more complex

and time consuming than you'd think.

Every step requires inside knowledge, skill, and expertise.

It all starts with the dough.

Mahmoud starts making the dough at 5 a.m.

with only flour and water, kneads it,

then at 8 a.m. he adds yeast and salt and water again.

Claudia: You can hear the sounds of the dough.

[dough squelching]

Claudia: When the dough is ready, it rests for one hour.

Then it is taken out in small batches.

Claudia: The batches of dough will be left

to rest until the following day,

while batches from the day before

are going to be cut in pieces and shaped.

This is when the dough starts to resemble a baguette.

Claudia: One batch of dough will make about 20 baguettes,

and about 200 baguettes will come out

from the whole of the dough.

[crunching]

Wow. It smells so nice.

So soft inside.