Technical skills were lacking this season. Syabira was probably the best baker of all of them. I am glad she won. Did anyone notice Matt's slip in the final round that it was the "end of the show"? GBBO does seem to have run its course.

I listen to the Bake Down podcast featuring three former Bake Off contestants. There was general agreement that this season the bakers should have been tested on their baking skills like pastry earlier in the competition and that the group seemed to be a good batch of cake makers.

Did anyone notice that all three finalists were immigrants to the UK?

I agree about the hosts plus I cringe when they make fun of Americans's accent. I'm sorry but, not every British accent sounds great and considering that Americans do watch it I don't know why they would hate on us. I also wish they would go back to baking and giving bakers a chance to actually complete on time.

Americans do British, Italian and French accents fairly often for entertainment. It's not 'hating on' anybody.

Also, I think Americans tend to forget that Brits don't have Mexico as a neighbor with significant population of Mexican origin, Mexican food items and food influences everywhere, and they haven't grown up with Tex Mex, so they indeed can mess up a taco (did they though, flavor wise?) and mispronounce guacamole. The same way as Indian cooking and 'going for a curry' is much more familiar to the Brits, while being very exotic and unknown to most of the people in DMV.
Were the 'shocking' jokes about Mexico really that different a level from jokes you've heard about the French or the Germans hundreds of times?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really miss the two female cohosts. I don’t hate the two guys, but they’re a different energy. Their jokes are self referential a lot.

I remember a story I read about the Sue and _____ (forgot her name) years about how cursing and brand placement weren’t allowed on the show, so when a baker got upset about one of their bakes gone wrong and seemed about to cry, Sue and ____ would gather around them and curse and shout “Corning Ware” and “Nabisco” etc and curse some more so the show would not embarrass the baker by airing their distress. I love that story.

I miss them and Mary even more. I don't like the two guys. They aren't funny.

I agree about the hosts plus I cringe when they make fun of Americans's accent. I'm sorry but, not every British accent sounds great and considering that Americans do watch it I don't know why they would hate on us. I also wish they would go back to baking and giving bakers a chance to actually complete on time.

In general, the Brits seem to enjoy trying to make fun of American accents. They also don't like our spellings either. It's fairly harmless. As for sounding great, some are harder to understand than others. It's the Scottish accents that are generally unintelligible, even to the Brits.

Sue is doing a show called Perfectly Legal on Netflix. I keep meaning to watch. Looks good.

I think they need to reconceive the “showstopper” challenge. I always enjoy the signature and the technical, which I think are well designed to allow the bakers to show off what they are best at and attempt difficult technical baking skills. But I agree that the showstopper is just about food aesthetics and they rarely look like they taste good or are ver well thought out.

I think the showstopper should always be either:

(1) a single item that is a complex example of the week’s theme, like a tired wedding cake for cake week or a layered bombe for dessert week, OR
(2) 3-5 examples of the category, like cookies/biscuits or bread, with a uniting theme and a challenge to make the presentation very beautiful

Instead they will ask them for food sculptures with engineering elements, or ask them to make like 8 different things, and it’s always a giant mess. It shouldn’t be easy but the challenge should come from making very good examples of the weekly theme, not making a million of them in an hour or trying to put them in the shape of an important person from their past or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really miss the two female cohosts. I don’t hate the two guys, but they’re a different energy. Their jokes are self referential a lot.

I remember a story I read about the Sue and _____ (forgot her name) years about how cursing and brand placement weren’t allowed on the show, so when a baker got upset about one of their bakes gone wrong and seemed about to cry, Sue and ____ would gather around them and curse and shout “Corning Ware” and “Nabisco” etc and curse some more so the show would not embarrass the baker by airing their distress. I love that story.

I miss them and Mary even more. I don't like the two guys. They aren't funny.

I agree about the hosts plus I cringe when they make fun of Americans's accent. I'm sorry but, not every British accent sounds great and considering that Americans do watch it I don't know why they would hate on us. I also wish they would go back to baking and giving bakers a chance to actually complete on time.

Anonymous wrote:I really miss the two female cohosts. I don’t hate the two guys, but they’re a different energy. Their jokes are self referential a lot.

I remember a story I read about the Sue and _____ (forgot her name) years about how cursing and brand placement weren’t allowed on the show, so when a baker got upset about one of their bakes gone wrong and seemed about to cry, Sue and ____ would gather around them and curse and shout “Corning Ware” and “Nabisco” etc and curse some more so the show would not embarrass the baker by airing their distress. I love that story.

I miss them and Mary even more. I don't like the two guys. They aren't funny.

I think that after getting rid of Jurgen caused so much media attention last season (or was it 2 seasons ago?), they are now always going to get rid of a strong baker before the semifinals for the shock factor. This season it was Januzs. I don’t like that now most of the challenges are about making something crazy in a short time. Id rather not watch a speed baking competition. In earlier seasons, if you looked up recipes from the season, there were some great ones to try at home. Not so much now. I have kind of a crush on Noel but could live without Matt, honestly.

I thought that Janusz, Maxy and Syabura were the most talented and was surprised by the others who were in the finals.

Anonymous wrote:Mel

I thought the entire season was pretty disappointing. Lots of silly challenges, and the bakers didn’t seem to have the same technical range as in some of the earlier seasons.

Yeah it was a weird season! Started off strong, but the challenges seemed designed for failure - not to have the bakers create magnificent things.

I really like Syabira - she was my favorite basically from the beginning - so I was happy to see her win, even though her orangutan was terrifying. The finale felt lackluster generally. I wasn't unhappy with who was in it - though Sandro was my least favorite of the semi-finalists. It just felt... underbaked.

Every week the big problem seemed to be that the judges didn't give the bakers enough time to actual fulfill the challenge in a competent way. I don't want to see bakers scrambling to complete their work without enough time to do it well - I want to see them get enough time to do a magnificent job.

Also don't even talk to me about tacos and smores.

Yeah this whole season was weird. I thought Matt toned down a little and was better than previous seasons - especially the week Noel was out sick, actually - though he'll never be Mel, Sue, or Sandy. I love Noel, so no complaints about him.

I don't know. There was something off this season. I'm not sure what. But Syabira was a revelation - she was so creative, good, and delightful. I was happy to see Abdul in the finale, too - he was a real under the radar excellent baker. Sandro had a weird vibe. Huge ego married to big insecurity, maybe. And hey, who hasn't felt that way some time - you can't fault someone for being upfront about trying to get what they want, I guess.

Mel

I thought the entire season was pretty disappointing. Lots of silly challenges, and the bakers didn’t seem to have the same technical range as in some of the earlier seasons.

I really miss the two female cohosts. I don’t hate the two guys, but they’re a different energy. Their jokes are self referential a lot.

I remember a story I read about the Sue and _____ (forgot her name) years about how cursing and brand placement weren’t allowed on the show, so when a baker got upset about one of their bakes gone wrong and seemed about to cry, Sue and ____ would gather around them and curse and shout “Corning Ware” and “Nabisco” etc and curse some more so the show would not embarrass the baker by airing their distress. I love that story.

I was ok with the outcome. Was disappointed with the semifinal, and the whole season, really. Every week is some weird challenge to make some sort of engineering marvel. The focus isn’t really baking anymore, it’s sculpture with food. This really hit me as I’ve watched the early seasons (now available n the Roku channel) and realize how far the show has strayed from the original, which I loved.

I’d been seeing Sandro popping up on Instagram a lot and had been trying to scroll past quickly without looking. I was sure he’d won. I guess he’s just an influencer.

Were other people happy with the outcome?

Did anyone see Sandro holding his plated bakefulls getting a hug- you can see the plate full of bakes just getting crushed!!! So funny

@ ~ 6 minutes remaining in the episode