Basque Baguette Wins Britain’s Best Loaf in Record 200-Entry Contest

Britain’s Best Loaf’s biggest field ever did not end with a sourdough crown. The overall title went to Cantabric Ogi, a Basque-style baguette from Tona Erreguin of Imma the Bakery, and that is the sort of result that makes sourdough bakers pause: when a loaf wins across every category, what exactly are judges rewarding, and how much of that is different from what we chase in sourdough?

The contest was held at the NEC Birmingham as part of the UK Food & Drink Shows, and it pulled in 200 loaves, the largest entry list in the competition’s 13-year history. Sponsors included ADM Milling, FRITSCH Bakery Technologies, L&M Parnaby, Matthews Cotswold Flour and Rademaker. The judging panel featured retail and bakery names such as Harry Peak of Marks & Spencer and John Lamper of Tesco, which underlines the point that Britain’s Best Loaf is an industry test, not just a trophy shelf for artisan bakers.

Cantabric Ogi was rooted in a traditional breadstick recipe from the coastal Basque region, but the judges were clearly looking at more than heritage. They praised the loaf’s shaping, crust, crumb structure and eating quality, the same bread mechanics serious sourdough bakers obsess over at home. Erreguin said the bread was carefully fermented to reach the right point, with a clean mildly sour profile and nutty, grainy notes. That is the interesting overlap here: the winning loaf was not sourdough in name, yet it was judged on the discipline that makes great sourdough work, especially controlled fermentation, texture and balance.

Britain’s Best Loaf 2026 also kept sourdough firmly in the frame with three dedicated categories, Flavoured Sourdough, Plain Sourdough and Seeded Sourdough. The category winners included Cheese, Chilli & Sun-dried Tomato Sourdough from Peak and Stone Bakery, Stanedge Country Sourdough from Peak and Stone Bakery, and Multiseed Sourdough from MOST Bakery. Cantabric Ogi also won the International category, which shows how the overall prize crossed style boundaries rather than rewarding one narrow bread type.

That broad spread matters. British Baker’s archive of past champions runs from spiced sourdough to a white tin loaf, focaccia and matcha brioche, so Britain’s Best Loaf has long favored precision and imagination over any single bread identity. Erreguin, already Baker of the Year 2025, now adds another major title to a run that includes Imma the Bakery’s Oxford Country Loaf winning Plain Sourdough in 2024. The message for sourdough bakers is plain enough: the best loaf is not always the most obviously sour loaf, but the one with fermentation, structure and flavor all pulling in the same direction.