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The Great British Bake-Off 2021

Started by Blue Jam, September 14, 2021, 09:54:29 AM

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Blue Jam

It's back on Tuesday the 21st! This year's hopefuls revealed:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58544950



QuoteAmanda is a 56-year-old detective with the Metropolitan Police in London, whose baking is heavily influenced by her Greek-Cypriot heritage. She learned to bake as a child with her mum and auntie before studying graphic design and working in advertising, then moving to the police.

Chigs only started baking seriously during lockdown in 2020, using online tutorials to learn complex bakes and chocolate work. The 40-year-old is a sales manager from Leicestershire.

Crystelle started baking seriously three years ago, and the 26-year-old client relationship manager from London - who is a self-confessed "bit of a stresser" - likes experimenting with flavours and textures inspired by her Portuguese-Goan-Kenyan heritage.

At 19, vegan psychology student Freya, from North Yorkshire, is the youngest baker in this year's tent. She says she likes to be "unexpected" with her baking and is "a massive perfectionist".

George, 34, who is a shared lives co-ordinator from London, is another baker from a Greek-Cypriot family who "has a keen eye for detail" and says his strength is his "creative flair".

Italian-born, Bristol-based Giuseppe inherited his love for baking from his father, a professional chef. The 45-year-old is a chief engineer who brings a sense of precision to his bakes.

Jairzeno moved from Trinidad 15 years ago and is a head of finance in London. The 51-year-old says he obsesses over flavour combinations, particularly using Caribbean spices, and says "baking is like breathing" for him.

German-born Jürgen moved to the UK 18 years ago and now lives in Sussex. The IT professional and amateur trombonist started baking when he couldn't buy his beloved German bread.

Lizzie is a 28-year-old car production operative from Liverpool who, according to Channel 4, "may look like she's frantic and messy on the outside, but she is usually calm and collected within".

Retired nurse and midwife Maggie, from Dorset, is this year's oldest baker at 70. As well as baking, she loves canoeing, kayaking, sailing and going on adventures in her campervan.

Rochica turned to baking when she was left unable to dance due to an injury. Ominously, the 27-year-old junior HR business partner from Birmingham says her weakness is "getting flustered and everything going wrong".

Finally, Tom is a 28-year-old developer for his family software company in Kent, and says baking was "a welcome escape" during lockdown, especially when he couldn't partake in his beloved amateur dramatics and singing.

I do wonder if Lizzie used to work with my uncle building Fords, good to see another Scouser in there- studying criminology as well apparently, I do like a Scouse criminologist. Rochica sounds like the Contestant Most Likely To BINCAKE. Vegan bakers never go far on this show so I'm not putting my money on Freya. Giuseppe looks like Stephen Mangan. Jürgen is apparently a physicist as well as a trumpet player and I hope he's as much fun as Kloppo.

Cuellar

Quotevegan psychology student Freya

University courses are getting ridiculous

Pijlstaart

State of those names, pretty sure Chigs is a slur.

Blue Jam

Nah, Chigs is probably just one of Legend Gary's mates, and he's probably worried at how Ledge will react when he finds out his mate is baking cakes on telly.

Mr Trumpet

My brother-in-law applied to be on this series. Was hoping he'd secretly been accepted and wasn't allowed to tell us, but apparently not.

jobotic

Hash cakes Ledge


Which one will Paul Hollywood merv n perve over?

They look like a great bunch of lads but as with many of these shows you never really know 'til the cameras are rolling do you? Like those "I'm fucking mad me, and I'm up for a fight or a fuck with anyone!" types they'd get on Big Brother who'd spend ten weeks sat by the pool doing fuck all.

Gurke and Hare


dissolute ocelot

Knew they had to have a vegan sooner or later. Will she still do the hamburger bun challenge or whatever meat-related savoury is up this year? Or will she have to make everything with aquafaba, spend 3 hours staring at some goo that's failing to solidify, and go "sod it pass the pigs' feet!"

Blue Jam

They have one or two vegans every year now. They do well in Vegan Week... and that's it. Bit daft applying for this show when you've got a massive handicap in not being able to use eggs, butter, cream, gelatin etc.

Like all reality shows it attracts contestants who appear to have never watched the show and haven't learned from other contestants' mistakes. For example Paul Hollywood hates matcha but someone will try and serve him a very pretty green matcha cake, mark my words. He also hates overly boozy cakes (Muury Berry loved them but she's not here anymore). Last year he requested that one baker leave the pickles out of her recipe as he hates them so much, and Prue was dreading having to try a recipe containing baked beans, so we'll probably see some of those sneaking into the savoury recipes again.

I hope they cut down on the doomed-to-fail challenges that they had too many of last year. Trying to make an ice cream cake in 40 degree heat isn't a baking challenge, it's a transparent attempt to make contestants cry. Let people just fucking bake stuff to the best of their ability in your baking contest. It's not fucking hard.

Blue Jam

^^^ Ditto for making the contestants bake a pie without pre-cooking the filling or blind-baking the pastry case, and the having the judges complain about all the "soggy bottoms". That's what happens if you're not allowed to bake pies properly FFS.

Cuellar

Predicting a Lizzie victory.[nb]going to make a series of these posts over the next few days so I look psychic when I quote them in 2 months time or whatever[/nb]

Quote from: Blue Jam on September 14, 2021, 12:31:55 PM
^^^ Ditto for making the contestants bake a pie without pre-cooking the filling or blind-baking the pastry case, and the having the judges complain about all the "soggy bottoms". That's what happens if you're not allowed to bake pies properly FFS.

Quite.

This is why I enjoy the Junior Bake Off so much. Simple challenges, yes, but they are all doable, so it purely comes down to what additional flourishes you can add beyond the brief or how well you can bake for your age. Y'know, an actual baking competition.

Pink Gregory

I would love to be in involved again, but I really dropped off in 2019 and just can't find the enthusiasm again.  Think I just started hating everybody.

Pink Gregory

fuck is a 'shared lives coordinator'?

gilbertharding

It's to do with caring. I mean, I personally don't care, but...

Kankurette

As a (shitty) brass player myself, I approve of Jürgen. Although I would rather stab myself in the eyes than go on that show. I love baking but I couldn't cope with the judges breathing down my neck.

Quote from: Pink Gregory on September 14, 2021, 01:40:13 PM
fuck is a 'shared lives coordinator'?

I hope it's for polyamorous folks who don't have enough time on their hands.


daf


Custard

Call me an old cynic, but I don't think they're all really sitting on that huge tree branch

What a swizz

Kankurette

I thought Jürgen was going to be the dude with the beard and glasses. It's Liverpool's fault.

Freya is this year's nice middle-class teenage girl, evidently.

Custard

Deffo reckon George gave Maggie one at some point

Pink Gregory


Quote from: Shameless Custard on September 14, 2021, 03:45:32 PM
Call me an old cynic, but I don't think they're all really sitting on that huge tree branch

What a swizz

It's actually a see-saw. Hollywood's sat on the other end, eating a big dinner.

Dex Sawash


Not arsed, Chigs will be the one styling it out as he goes this year.

Pijlstaart

Glad to see some malt loaf references, conspicuously absent from the broadcast media despite it's cultural heft, parallels to roy chubby brown in several senses, mostly physical. Is it a generational thing, I'm sure people still eat malt loaf? Perhaps they don't recognise it as a loaf so much as a pap, I never sliced it, I'd just twist off a chunk with my hand. New round of students next week, will do a survey.

Tom's tenure was mercifully brief, looks like someone napalmed brambly hedge, a rejected Sweet Tooth character,  wouldn't accept food that's been within 10 feet of him. From the footage it didn't seem like he was the weakest baker, presume off-camera he became overstimulated by his sudden entry to the world of man and started binkying and shedding fleas, producers probably had a word.

Some clear early favourites, strongly rooting for Maggie, just fantastic, reminds me of my old neighbour who headed the local WI, probably well placed to win. Freya somehow dressed even younger than her years, a bit Bride of Chucky, echoes of the haunted dollhouse, and splendidly greasy hair like a child would have, will she enter on a trike with streamers next week? Didn't realise they did vocal fry in the north-east, will watch her career with great interest.

Crystelle clearly gunning for the reaction gif market, there's always one, not sure what to make of her. Rochica seems to bring up her father a lot, hope that gets tastefully explored in a future episode.

Plenty of villains in the tent this time, don't like the orange scouse one, either of them. The noises she made, horrendous, lived there for 3 years but can't understand a word she's saying, presume lustful overtures towards Noel. Are there british juggalos, surely she's not far off? George a sort of perma-vulgar shrek DJ Khaled thing, presume his arsecrack pops out of bits of clothing you don't expect, amazed any footage of him made it past the censors. Out in the next two weeks, him or the cake-drop woman.

Jurgen a bereft creature, a nailed-on fetishist, knee-high socks, maybe thigh-high? Clearly can't be trusted with a prittstick, look at those eyebrows. And a Trombone!


Enjoyed that. Felt quite sorry for Tom. As an awkward, gangly longshanks myself, I know that just standing up without toppling over is a fucking challenge at the best of times for a lad like Tom, so his slightly leaning cake was as gravity defying as he dare try. Alas, in the eyes of Prue and Paul with their exceptionally low centres of mass, this was not going to pass muster and his icing work was proper clumsy and all. Off you fuck, lad.

dissolute ocelot

It can be a bit hard with lots of new people, but there were definitely personalities who stood out. (Maybe that's why they were chosen; and why they kept going on about Maggie looking like Prue.) Looks like there may be a battle to keep Lizzie in for entertainment value and colourful clothes despite her questionable results. Amanda seems likely the next to go. Pleased that they don't have a smug, good-looking young man this year, meaning it's a bit more open - will Freya wilt under the eggy pressure?

Agree about the malt loaf. I was impressed that most managed to bake it properly without seemingly any direction on time or temperature. I've never handled malt extract, but maybe some day...

Not convinced by the first showstopper, which looked more like "Who has a mate with some power tools?" than a serious cooking contest. It was amazing how some, like Freya and Giuseppe, produced things of beauty, and others came up with crap that would be laughed at on Junior Bake-Off. Some of them must feel like going home after that. But I guess growing and improving is part of it.