On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

I like him and he has proven much better than I feared.

I’ve never watched this show before but I watched three episodes with my sister - a regular viewer - including the finale, and that vegetarian gelatin thing was such bullshit!

They (the judges) kept saying “needed more time to bake/set” etc and it seemed obvious that in lieu of corralling people into fighting on what is obviously this very Nice Show that they clearly take time off to create conflict.

The tight timings on the challenges are such bullshit.

I don't watch this show to see people fuck up because they don't have time for their bakes to prove, etc. That is not entertainment.

It also seems like the show is more rigidly storylined, whereas before it just seemed like you were hanging out with the contestants. But it’s the same missing coziness

what i did think last night was that a taskmaster-style champion of champions series would be good, with the last 5 or 6 winners in it.

Netflix airs the finale this Friday in the U.S. Not as invested this season (tacos being the nadir), though all the contestants are pleasant. Presenter-wise, Noel's outfits have been fun.

There’s an Insta account that posts the clothes he wears plus where to get them, and it’s all Yohji Yamamoto, Bella Freud (the jumpers, mainly) and other respectable design choices.

i saw him with his kid at a saturday morning football club and he was wearing exactly what he'd been wearing that week on bake-off - smiley face jumper, big furry tiger-stripe coat

I loved his blue and yellow jumper this week. He seemed whacked out - my partner reckoned he might have missed the first two rounds due to a vomiting bug, because he looked like he was just holding it together.

Absolutely agree with everything that's been said. It was just very much a celebration of who is least bad at this bullshit than who is actually the best baker, which is just a nonsense way to decide. And no wonder Americans think the entire UK is full of people who don't know what food is when our biggest culinary TV export is two people going "tarragon? What madness is this?!" for an hour, in a tent full of wacky personality people who have never seen an avocado. It's absolutely losing everything that made it so lovely.

I really, really like Noel, and find him very funny, and feel that he seems so at ease with himself that on some level, even when it seems he's distracting the bakers, he's actually calming them. I may be in the minority there though.

No, I get this too. I feel like Matt is just there to just relentless throw joke attempts around and see what sticks, and Noel seems genuinely invested in the contestants and the show. He seems closer to the spirit of Mel and Sue. I thought he was weird stunt casting at first, and I suspect he might have done himself, but he seems to genuinely enjoy himself and that must rub off on those around him.

agree w everyone itt

The judging now feels sadistic, so little encouragement at all and so far removed from the earlier seasons. That the technical failed across the board are fails of the challenge, like the stropppwaffel challenge a few years back.

However the contestants this season were true class & I am so happy with how it shook out

and can we just
https://static1.straitstimes.com.sg/s3fs-public/styles/large30x20/public/articles/2022/11/16/ads-syabirayusoff-161122_2.jpg?VersionId=pA..i9dy5ybb6OUV1xv5MEAOHr5BjEFC

i want an orangutan birthday cake

very boosh cake, i thought

otm!

great winner but agreed with many of the gripes. i would much prefer bakers with time enough to show their very very best, and a winner with an amazing show-stopper, than see who got the least thrown off their plans by time. i get that it's a competition, but the premise is that we're after the best amateur baker in Britain. what amateur baker would ever try to make ice cream with no time for it to freeze, or gelatin with no time for it to set, etc., etc.? it's just silly obstacles in lieu of real competitive challenges. Pottery Throwdown is so much more supportive, encouraging, and warm-bathy, we love it.

have we ever had a finale where the outcome was so obvious and anticlimactic? like Sandro and Abdul both kinda whiffed it and the only real outcome was Syabira winning (thank god)

yeah it def felt a bit off-balance this time

well if Janusz hadn't been bizarrely ejected it would have been a real fight, Syabira definitely the Björk genius of the series but J was brilliant without having an ego about it. There was something wise and oddly sad behind his pragmatism, I was gutted when he was eliminated. I'm really glad S won though.

i do wish janusz & maxi had been in the final - i liked abdul & sandro well enough but they weren’t my picks

i think janusz had the best technical knowledge too, he just always seemed to be so calmly knowledgeable- like Nancy way back in season whatever it was

Abdul was a complete WTF for me, and Sandro coasted on charm a lot of the time. Maxy would have been a great finalist too. I was secretly hoping Maisam would make it through just for her otherworldly vibe.

yeah i sandro and abdul maybe were considered better tv, personality wise? idk. sandro was v chaotic to me & always made things that were too big etc. his decoration was v good though. abdul was consistent i guess but he never really won me over.

the extra slice aftershow revealed that syabira is a military tank nerd which makes me love her even more <3

also if anyone has HBO, Dan Levy’s Big Brunch competition show has a lot of early GBBO’s really good supportive vibes & lovable contestants but with professional chefs & prize money (if that’s possible). It takes a couple of eps to get there but it’s grown on me so much but the KIP vibes are v good

I'm hoping we'll get that over here. I watched a couple of episodes of the Canadian version of Bake-Off that he presented, and it wasn't brilliant but he was so lovely on it.

Maxi got inside her own head and undid herself, it was sad to see.

Sandro just had this nutty overachiever thing where he could have done something great but had to push it a little too far. Still think Paul revealed himself as the micro-dick wanker he is by refusing to eat Sandro's biscuit.

I thought Janusck would win after the first episode. But he started great and didn't get better - if anything, he really struggled with the last few challenges. But he definitely seemed a gifted baker.

Was impressed with how Abdul kept his head down for the first 2/3s of the series. My partner always says, until the later stages all you really need to do is not fuck up. There will always be other contestants who will shit the bed - you don't need to excel, you just need to do well enough.

also if anyone has HBO, Dan Levy’s Big Brunch competition show has a lot of early GBBO’s really good supportive vibes & lovable contestants but with professional chefs & prize money (if that’s possible). It takes a couple of eps to get there but it’s grown on me so much but the KIP vibes are v good

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, November 19, 2022 7:19 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

lol I literally just came here to post this, cannot recommend Big Brunch enough

the judges are extremely kind and supportive and encouraging but never at the expense of giving honest feedback

Janucsz getting sent home brought flashbacks of Hermine a few seasons prior, which was extra-frustrating bcz of that one woman who made it to the final (Laura?) by being consistently second-worst every week

awww i had a TV baking crush on Laura. but yes, show definitely is starting to pile up robbed goddesses. feel like a four-person finale might not be a bad way to go, tbh.

Love Janusz but think they made the right call. Still bitter about Hermine though

i enjoyed this season just as much as any other but they botched two challenges at the end. in the patisserie challenge the showstopper seemed to me like it had very little to nothing to do w/ patisserie. and then in the final the technical was really bad, no way around it. it's weird too bcuz they started the season w/ basic, classic-y technicals but by the end when it was supposed to get "harder" they leaned a little too far into gimmick territory. i never tire of bake off tho :)

i felt like the showstopper challenge in the finale maybe didn’t assign enough time or something, it didn’t feel as grand as other finales somehow idk

it felt a lot like getting them to cater the final party

I'm hoping we'll get that over here. I watched a couple of episodes of the Canadian version of Bake-Off that he presented, and it wasn't brilliant but he was so lovely on it.

― trishyb, Sunday, November 20, 2022 4:21 AM (yesterday)

I'm not that dedicated to this franchise, but I watched the most recent Canadian season (S6) and liked it quite a bit. The judges & hosts (Dan Levy is no longer involved) are still kind of stiff—though I find the "comedy" on the British version detrimental at this point, so the relative ignorability of the Can hosts is more of a plus—but the contestant cohort this season was very likeable without seeming like proto-media people

the Australian version is fun, all the presenters likeable

This was the hardest season for me to get through, but I honestly didn't connect with many (or any) of the bakers much. (Sandro possibly being a ringer didn't help.) The number of baking fails doesn't bother me so much except at the end.

I do kind of worry that the show has crossed a point of no return with its Bigger Is Better, and Less Time Is Best ethos.

otm

the craziness/unfamiliarity of the technicals and the bizarre spectacle element of the showstopper are def rivers that can’t be uncrossed

Yeah they're chasing drama that the core audience of the show doesn't want. We want to see people stretching themselves and performing at their best, not sweating a time limit or some absurd decoration exercise which is more suited to a Lego challenge than a baking contest. The core values are amateur spirit, and the generosity of contestants to each other. Also baking, which seems pretty negotiable these days.

Yeah, the show has basically become the professionalization of amateur baking!

Paul?

https://alafoss.is/collections/sweaters-for-men

Junior Bake Off mon-fri the next 3 weeks.

today's "9 robot fondant fancies" probably the worst mess i've ever seen

Can't wait. Glad I don't have to clean up after it.

Immy is chaos personified

This programme is chaos this year. I love how the challenges are all liquid and tall and precarious and runny and full of dye and colouring and MESS. Like, watching the kids break off their intense challenge to help catch the "burglar" had strong Tiswas vibes.

Immy telling Harry conversation about what she liked about Charlie wasn't appropriate for children's television was my highlight of week one but the burglar was a close second.

Pottery Throwdown is hitting a really sweet spot for me this year: likeable contestants, chilled vibes, the tasks are challenging rather than impossible,and (what I like most of all) the focus is on doing and trying rather than *winning*. Plus Siobhan McSweeney, not exactly a subtle host, spends more time showcasing the contestants rather than prattling though ironically bad comedy skits. Also, the pottery is great!

beg to differ but i may be looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place

The adult version would be so much better with Rav and Liam as judges, none of that stares and handshakes and 'are you sure you want to do that' crap which only makes the show worse.