Bake Off Professionals 2022

[newnamethanks]

Good. No Tom Allen, replaced by Stacey Solomon. Still got Liam. Real patisserie. Lovely.

I didn’t know that Tom had been replaced until I saw the trailers recently.

I think that Stacey was really good. It seems like she really has that awful ‘oh no!’ feeling that I have when something collapses.

I do like Tom, but I think that something like Another Slice was more suited to him.

I preferred Tom.

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

That’s interesting. Why do you prefer Tom?

I thought she was pretty awful. When she was talking about the different layers in the Frasier, her pronunciation was bad. I realise that words might be unfamiliar to her but surely someone should have coached her!

Ha! We said that she must’ve been coached in words like fraisier. Which actually is maybe a bit shit on our part. Maybe she is a pâtisserie connoisseur.

Perhaps she is, and maybe she'll grow on me. I'll put the subtitles on next week!!

I'd rather have Stacey dropping a few aitches and being confessedly gormless once in a while than Tom snarking away and double entendre-ing all over my virtual cakes. He's better suited to other programmes. And Liam could take a holiday too. Other than that, ohhhhh, the showstoppers😥poor things.

I like Stacey Solomon when she stops acting all goofy and daft. She is a lot more intelligent than she makes out (especially on Instagram)
I thought she was good in bake off
Didn't like that outfit though

I'm not worried about a dropped aitch. I'm also assuming her asking what a "Fraser" was rather than a "Frasier" was supposed to be a joke. But she could at least try to get things like genoise and mousseline right!

Pour encourager les autres, presumably. We franglais try our best. How do you pronounce genoise? Gen-wahs? Or Gen-o-ees? What's your preference? Better let her know.

Stacey is fine. I just prefer Tom - and yes, his snark.

The last thing I would want when my creation was tumbling in the direction of the floor, is Stacey bring all ‘aw’ and full of sympathy. I don’t want ditsy when the lass isn’t a ditz.----

I’d prefer the snark. And I will miss it.

Fair enough Sheldonesque. I can't believe you'd ever drop your showpiece though, definitely not.

Is bake off the professionals a different show than the great British bake off or is it the same show just no Mary berry and Paul Hollywood?

Similar but different. It's professional patissiers competing over 8? weeks to make fiendishly complex but inventive pastries and gateaux, lose one a week, eventually one winner. Judged by Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin, hosted by Liam from Bake Off and Stacey Solomon who appears to have replaced Tom Allen. I really like it.
Also, any pastry fans out there, the documentary Kings of Pastry follows a French patissier competing in the most prestigious professional pastry award in France. It's (sounds nuts but true) nail-bitingly tense and really gripping. I recommend them both.

newnamethanks

I fear that your confidence in my construction skill is misplaced 🥴
anything more advanced than two fairy cakes on top of eachother would be precarious.

And the dog who comes a-courting would be likely to get at least one of them as I hit juggler phase. 🤡

And you will know that they wouldn’t be identical too!

These pro bakers are amazing. They can keep their matcha though…

I'm up to date and watching tonight's live.

I really like how Stacey lightens the mood in the kitchen and gets the chefs talking.
Liam is a total spare part now though, I think he's great on junior bake off but out of his depth here.

i like Stacy, Tom was funny, but i think Stacy seems to be bonding with the Patissiers better.

I wish they'd find some better place to build the showstoppers though, the heat in that kitchen murders the pieces SO much.

What's happened to Benoit's English ? He's developed the habit of putting an 'innit?' At the end of a sentence or question. What's wrong with 'hein?' or even a 'Non?' It's very disconcerting. I'm used to hearing it on a number 237 school bus in W London, it's proper home.

Benoit could speak Klingon and I reckon I’d still be entranced.

Had to dig deep into the archives to find this thread - but did anyone watch the final last night? Pretty clear the winners were going to win (trying not to spoiler it for anyone who didn't see!) but I'd have been happy for any of the three final pairs to take the very underwhelming plate. The shiny tiny cakes! The precision piping! The inevitable crash of a space ship made entirely from sugar! It's going to leave a sad cake-shaped hole in my Tuesday evenings.

Agree about Benoit's 'innit'ing - it was getting very noticeable towards the end of the series. Also, whenever Cherish starts a sentence, 'How I wiiiish you had made this totally differently added more matcha/cooked your pastry/microbladed your hay entremet...' you know something highly critical is about to follow.

Agree it was no surprise who won.

I didn't understand how the pair of women made it to the final. They seemed to produce incomplete showstoppers for 3 weeks in a row.

I loved the sheep race idea and wish it had come off. I adored that team and really felt for them, the stress of the final was too much.

What a lovely bunch all round this year.

Oh and this was the first time it really felt like a bake off spin off.
The judging remains (wonderfully) on the harsh side, but the contestants seemed to take it better and were nicer to each other. Lots of comments within the pairs praising other teams.

And Stacy was great at breaking tension in the way Mel and Sue did in the early days, and I loved how she happily tasted everything.

The fact that they're professionals takes a fair bit of the cringey sting out of judging for me - there's something heartbreaking about watching Margaret from Barrow-in-Furness's croquembouche slowly disintegrate in a slick of unset caramel, whereas if it's your JOB to make structurally reliable choux pastry, then if it falls over... well, cha la la. And yes, it was nice to see the little cutaways to teams muttering, That's amazing! about competitors, or trying to cheer each other up.

Stacey really grew on me too! And if they ever decide to make James Bond a Frenchman who sees off terrorists with laser-guided beignets and robot religieuses...

I will probably check I’m the final out at some point. I’m afraid it lost the sparkle for me and I stopped watching it.

I would be totally up for a French Jimmy Bond though.