Great British Bake-off: The Final

[StrangerintheNight]

Just typed out a very excitable post only to find the previous thread, on which I was an avid lurker, had exceeded it's capacity. So if you don't mind, I'll start the overflow thread in the lead up to the Grand Final.

next year

Well if Brendan had won it probably would have been my last GBBO so it all evens out :)

I'd have been happy for him to leave in week 2 or 3.

Oh and as for James . . . . . . . .

Words fail me, what a mess he made. PH will not be pleased!

Yay! Well, I'm pleased John won, that cake was amazing and last week's was fab too (with the hearts). I still luff James. Brendan was too smug and immodest. I loved hearing what all the contestants were up to after GBB. I love that John is training to be a patissier. Apols if spelt that wrong.

Yes, lots of people disliked Brendan, his personality didn't endear him to everyone. I admired his talent.

I agree that it was James' for the taking and he messed upThe judges pointed out several times that Brendan was not good in the technical bakes and I do think this is what lost it for him .If you go back through the weeks he was pretty poor from the start on anything that he hadn't been able to prepare beforehand.In the end I did feel sad for him though he paid a lovely tribute to his partner.

Immodesty, it's just not the done thing in England.

Also squoosh don't forget John's Pithiviers it was the best, the sausage was beautiful! His french fancies were too small though!

I didn't have an issue with Brendan's personality, but overall he seemed to be a dedicated and gifted baker but without a real instinct for it (hence his issues with the technical challenges). James on the other had oodles of flair and instinct but just winged it a bit too much and in the final week it came crashing down around him (quite literally in the case of that cake). John was more of a blend of hard work and flair and so closer to the complete package.

I think for me the coating on the choc cake just looked revolting.

Brendon´s cake-light, fluffy sponge with berries-lovely!

i think some people are being mean about Brendan, yes he comes across as a bit arrogant but sounds like he had a rough childhood and so has had to put up a facade and protection over the years.

I really thought it was between Brendan and James so was completely surprised to see last night online that John won- i don't have a tv so had to wait for internet catch up today to watch it. Not sure if he was the worthy winner overall. I think what james said was right they are all winners. John at least is the one who wants to make a career from it so if it gives him a boost then i'm happy with that result. I think he probably edged it slightly on the final, James was let down by his showstopper which was not following the brief and they said was dry. John definitely has that flair for making things look very high standard and also be contemporary. Can completely see him doing very well as a patissier.

Can see some sort of collaboration between James and Heston at some point and Brendan has been great to show that older people still have lots to offer- his knowledge was amazing.

Brendan could clearly bake but his design and faithful reproduction were straight out of the early 70's and when out of his depth, he didn't do well. In that sense he had skills (and perhaps excellent skills compared to John) but that's not the whole package. He also needed creativity and a spark of imagination, and we never saw that.

Of course it didn't help that he comes across as so entitled to win - that may be editing, but what some of us heard came from his own mouth, and his concerned glances as to how everyone else was doing in comparison with him were also off-putting.

On the final John clearly cooked best, and that has to count in the judges' final assessment.

The "emotional journeys" were there for us viewers but they would not have had an influence on the judges.

I seriously do not recognise this John that people are describing. Maybe I've been watching a different show for the past few weeks.

I wonder whether the decision about who wins comes down solely to Mary and Paul or if the producers also have a say. Maybe as John is the only one who wants to become a professional baker that swung it for him. Creates more of a storyline arc. 'Yes you shall go to the ball Cordon Bleu cookery school'

diddl In Fr. a lot of the choc. cakes have a mirrored finish it's trendy something Brendan doesn't 'get'. His baking was too conventional IMO.

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/10/16/article-2218692-1588F2B7000005DC-528_634x439.jpg Brendan's cake]]

It's a weird looking thing

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/10/16/article-2218692-1588F2B7000005DC-528_634x439.jpg

Failed link

Did Brendan really do so badly on the technical bakes? My recollection is that he was near the bottom in one or two, but also did quite a few of them very well...because of his 'incredible knowledge' which is constantly referenced.

I guess I can justify John winning if you take into account all the extra decades of practice Brendan has had. I still think Brendan was generally better than John, but maybe the gap wasn't wide enough when you take into account their ages, and John just had more natural talent.

The bicycle shaped choux bun thing was where James went off the boil for me, too try hard, didn't look like an attractive thing to eat no matter how well it was executed. Also the derelict barn. The five cakes fiasco wasn't much of a surprise after those.

Brendan's bakes were very much accomplished amateur, where John pulled off one or two really professional ones (coliseum, heaven and hell).

I agree wholeheartedly tiggytape, I'm sure Danny does too!

Yeah but poor James Fxxckxx up the final and they were going by the final he even had a soggy bottom on his Pithiviers

I think James would have won if he hadn't messed up every single challenge in the final (OK, he "won" the technical challenge, but in a "well, yours isn't quite as bad as the others" way). But he over-reached himself and left John as the "flair" candidate in the flair vs. skill face-off.

I read a piece by Edd Kimber recently where he said that a big part of succeeding on the series once you're past the first couple of weeks is knowing and cooking for Paul and Mary's individual likes and quirks. I'd probably have preferred the taste of Brendan's cake to the taste of John's, if I'm honest, because I don't really like coconut and I'm not generally fussed about chocolate cakes. But neither of them were cooking for me; they were cooking for the judges they'd had nine previous weeks to get to know.

I was really pleased for John but agree that he was lucky and both Brendan and James had been better throughout the series. That seems to be the way on GBBO though, it was the same last year with Jo. She had made some right royal cockups and IIRC narrowly avoided being booted out but managed to pull it off in the final over people who had been more consistently good overall.

Another one who agrees that James lost the final. I liked all three finalists - genuinely would have been happy for any of them to have won.

John was star baker on bread week - didn't PH say the winner is usually the one who does well with bread??