That type of bread that french call “surgelé” (frozen) or “industriel” (industrial) tastes like straw (because it is baked two times too fast) and is dry half a day after purchase (very low moisture level). Customers usually eat it warm, wich hides the true taste of it.

The machine is just a fridge coupled with an oven, the baguette you order is just thawed, not baked.

My guess: nearly frozen half-backed baguettes, browned in a high IR oven.

Or, given the size of the machine, there are a bunch of very short boulangers in there…

“Yeah, some people might argue that les mariés are often those suffering from célibat…”

In 60 seconds it’s probably just reheating bread that was put there that morning. Or, worse, it’s heating frozen bread that was put there last week.

This is probably why the machine has no windows. It would destroy the fantasy if you just saw a frozen baguette thrown into an oven.

I guess it’s possible that the machine is doing the forming of long baguettes and slashing them perfectly and everything else, even though those baguettes look very human-made. But still, the bread is not being baked while you wait. It’s being reheated.

History:

Pre 2004 the American Bakers Association petitioned the F.D.A to allow the word “fresh” on bread stating that not allowing this put the industry at a disadvantage. The FDA rules made solid sense, if any preservative are used to maintain shelf life the item could not be considered “fresh”. The A.B.A demands that it be allowed to call its product fresh since the F.D.A has not defined the transition from “fresh” to non fresh or how long something can remain fresh or the period of time something remains fresh.

Today: “Fresh” with certain foods, is considered a “sensory modifier” meaning it “could” smell fresh, taste fresh, feel fresh, look fresh, and even hear fresh like thumping a watermelon. And this is the case with bread.

I’ve seen these machines but never tried the bread. All they’re doing is heating up a pre-baked baguette that’s kept in cold storage – not necessarily frozen solid. Don’t know how often the machines are restocked so I can’t attest to the freshness of the product but it may be a tad bit better than whatever’s left in stock and sitting out on the shelves all day. So for supermarket bread at least, it may be the better bet for a late-night purchase.