The concept is muddled; it’s as though they’re making two different shows, not one. All the bakeries specializing in local traditional baked goods are unfairly compared to classically trained french pastry chefs.
It would be far more interesting to have two programs, pitting the french pastry chefs against each other, and proper British bakeries against each other.
Cornish pasties
Bedfordshire clangers
Lancashire courting cake
Kentish Apple cake
Lardy cakes
Custard tart
Battenberg cake
Parkins
Rock cake
Episode 4 had a french pastry chef LOSE against a family bakery. Nice surprise, except it wasn’t a surprise because the pastry chef’s creation for the baker’s dozen was so far from what it was supposed to be. His Cherry Genoa cakes were overwhelmed with a chocolate casing and a huge load of chocolate mousse. But the cakes themselves were dryish, lacking cherries, and more like an after thought to the rest of his pastry.
The winning bakery’s Speciality Bake failed to impress (Kentish Apple Cake). Once again, the local traditional cake was outshined by a french chef. This french chef made salted caramel macaron For the Speciality Bake, which was highly favored over the traditional local apple cake.
If the french chef hadn’t gone so far off brief for the Baker’s Dozen, and had concentrated more on the cake than on showcasing more skills and techniques (which he bragged at the finale would carry him through), he would have won easily. Ultimately, it was lousy cake, sunken cherries, and too much chocolate that did him in. The family bakery only won by default.
I’m watching the south region semi-finals and the family bakery is up against all the pastry chefs. They are easily outmatched. I agree that they could and should have stepped out of their comfort zone and tried something even a little more ambitious than their regular repertoire. They didn’t even make their own chocolate icing for the eclairs- they brought ready made icing in a tub that is mass produced for the food industry. (At one point, while all the pastry makers were flying around the kitchen, working so hard to complete their complex pastries, the family bakers were standing still, eating slices of bread.)
This is why there should be two different series, one competition for best patisserie, and a separate competition for family bakeries producing English traditional regional specialties. Each would be interesting in their own right. But pitting one family bakery against patisserie specialists seems unfair, and very uninteresting.
Just watched the second half of the south region semi finals. I wondered if, once again, a french patisserie chef had done himself in by going too far off brief with an extremely loose interpretation of chocolate cake. Additionally, his meringue/macaron based creation was TOO chocolatey. The judges admitted they could each eat only one bite. That should have kept him out of the finale. But it didn’t.
During the judges’ deliberations, they admitted they were also considering whether their two chosen winners would stretch themselves and reach beyond their comfort zones to wow the judges in the finale. Despite both the greek pastry shop and the family bakery out-performing the french patisserie in the Judges’ Choice chocolate cake round (Mich couldn’t help taking multiple bites of their delicious chocolate cakes), the french pastry chef won. Clearly, the judges preferred the other two chocolate cakes. But the judges had deemed That both bakeries would be reluctant to stray from their comfortable repertoires and were thus eliminated in favor of the french chef who should have lost by default.
Which begs the question: why are the local family bakeries competing against classically trained french patisserie experts? I loved both semi final winners: Saveurs and Mark Bennet Patisserie. They’re fun to watch. But so were the family bakeries. They belong in two different programs.
P.S. as much as I enjoy watching the French chef work, what is up with that horrible braid/queue/rattail hanging from the back of his head?! Ugh! I wish someone would sneak up behind him and snip it off!!