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The Great British Bake Off 2016


Veltigar
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11 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Yeah, I don't know what happened to him. I think he probably doesn't put the effort in like the others do. Since he works in the City, I can't imagine he has much spare time to practise.

Nobody I know who did or does work in the city has worked long hours. Quite the reverse. I would suggest in fact that they are known for expecting things to come easy for them without much effort.

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5 minutes ago, Isis said:

Nobody I know who did or does work in the city has worked long hours. Quite the reverse. I would suggest in fact that they are known for expecting things to come easy for them without much effort.

I have no personal experience with them, so I'll take your word for it :) that's extra disappointing though. 

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2 hours ago, Veltigar said:

It seems like Mary Berry has dropped the mic and is going to abandon TGBBO as well :) No definite news on Hollywood, but C4 seems to think they can keep him on board.

I count this as a victory against corporate greed.

Now confirmed that Hollywood is staying

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2 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I have no personal experience with them, so I'll take your word for it :) that's extra disappointing though. 

If we're talking about some form of banker then that would be my experience. If we're talking about lawyers or something else then I don't know. :)

A friend of mine from Derbyshire was quite cross about the Bakewell tart having icing on it as he swears this is not traditional. I say that Mr Kipling has a lot to answer for!

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1 hour ago, Maltaran said:

Now confirmed that Hollywood is staying

Hollywood sells out :P Why am I not surprised? :P

Seriously though, fuck him. Loyalty is not something he's familiar with, it seems.

18 minutes ago, Isis said:

If we're talking about some form of banker then that would be my experience. If we're talking about lawyers or something else then I don't know. :)

Strange they didn't specify his job. Selasi just works at the City, that's it. 

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52 minutes ago, Isis said:

<>

A friend of mine from Derbyshire was quite cross about the Bakewell tart having icing on it as he swears this is not traditional. I say that Mr Kipling has a lot to answer for!

I was certainly surprised they went for the iced version (although heaven knows why so many failed at the icing/feathering - it's really not that hard).

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1 hour ago, Ser Quork said:

That was the case for some, but not all.  A coulpe seemed to have difficulty with the feathering itself, which I found surprising.

Well they are amateurs. Yeah, they have a certain amount of skill, but being home bakers generally means they learn by trial and error. Some of them will have done feathering before, others won't. And trying stuff like that for the first time in a pressurised situation isn't going to be easy

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5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Seriously though, fuck him. Loyalty is not something he's familiar with, it seems.

 

Ehh. I don't know much about him but realistically you're looking at loyalty to the show crew versus loyalty to the Beeb here. Presumably money helped but as much as I like the BBC and as much I'd have liked them all to leave for the BBC's inevitable successor attempt I'm not sure why one is more worthy than the other (apart from you being able to watch one, of course).

 

 

Anyway,

 

Val's terrific, but I'm glad she's finally gone to be honest- her consistently undercooking things and then insisting she meant to was beginning to become cliche (Selasie kind of does the same thing with overcooking, to be fair, but it feels more like a joke when he says it).


I think Candace and Jane are beginning to show as front runners. Tom's fallen apart since he won star baker, but honestly I'd be surprised if it isn't Rav next.


 

Edited by polishgenius
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23 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Well they are amateurs. Yeah, they have a certain amount of skill, but being home bakers generally means they learn by trial and error. Some of them will have done feathering before, others won't. And trying stuff like that for the first time in a pressurised situation isn't going to be easy

I find this surprising.  It's a very elementary form of decoration - simple and easy to execute.  I'm an amateur too but I really have been surprised by some of the things that have happened this season that we didn't see in previous seasons, of which this is one example.  Another example was seeing some of the bakers not use shimmering hot fat for Yorkshires (it's basic - it's stated in all Yorkshire recipes).  Even my husband (not a baker) has noticed that there seem to be more fundamental issues with some contestants' bakes this year, rather than real technical issues or unhappy accidents.  It makes one wonder ...

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48 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Well they are amateurs. Yeah, they have a certain amount of skill, but being home bakers generally means they learn by trial and error. Some of them will have done feathering before, others won't. And trying stuff like that for the first time in a pressurised situation isn't going to be easy

I think this is the part of GBBO that truly amazes me. They are truly amateurs, they make mistakes. I like competitive cooking shows, but in US, it seems that every amateur knows how to present a dish like the chef of the 5-star restaurant would do, not to mention techniques that can not be put in the realm of amateurish cooking whatsoever. Here, they have a bit of leaning curve, they make mistakes, it doesn't always look perfect and what they know is within the realm of amateur's knowledge. 

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39 minutes ago, Ser Quork said:

I find this surprising.  It's a very elementary form of decoration - simple and easy to execute.  I'm an amateur too but I really have been surprised by some of the things that have happened this season that we didn't see in previous seasons, of which this is one example.  Another example was seeing some of the bakers not use shimmering hot fat for Yorkshires (it's basic - it's stated in all Yorkshire recipes).  Even my husband (not a baker) has noticed that there seem to be more fundamental issues with some contestants' bakes this year, rather than real technical issues or unhappy accidents.  It makes one wonder ...

Well I'm amateur too, and have never done this form of decorating. That was kind of my point, different bakers will have attempted different "basics". (I would have got the Yorkshire Pudding thing though, can't whack a decent Yorkshire). Actually I think decorating is so,etching a lot of amateurs would not have much practice with. Home baking and teaching yourself, I would say more often you are going to be concerned with taste over appearance, so are less likely to try and master fancy techniques. Obviously you see some contestants who are very careful about decoration (they frequently have some reason for this though; they are an interior designer, art student whatever, and are likely to think more about look) but I would say for the most part the appearance of the bakes gets better as the week's progress and the bakers pick up new skills.

Like Risto this is what I enjoy about GBBO, the fact that the contestants aren't polished, and do make the kind of errors I'd make in the kitchen.

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Damn, flour and egg too!

What I love about this show is that you see the failures and the successes.  I can honestly say I do not recall ever seeing a pie with no crust on the side or a broken gingerbread house when looking at comparable programs from the US.  It is the only show of its type that has me thinking, hey, I could probably be a contestant and do well.  

Regarding this week...

Spoiler

I agree with @polishgenius regarding the constant excuses from Val.   I liked her quirks and she reminded me of my mum, but, I think she was the weakest baker of the lot remaining.  Tom has had a couple bad weeks.  I think he gets into trouble from going too far with his experimentation, whereas Raj has had too many disasters.  I think one of those two will leave next.  Jane is a good baker, probably slightly ahead of Candice at the moment.and along with Bejamina, they are the front runners.  It feels as though Selasi is in the middle of the pack, just above Tom and Raj.  Started rooting for Andrew,I hope he can make it to the end.

 

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13 hours ago, Risto said:

I think this is the part of GBBO that truly amazes me. They are truly amateurs, they make mistakes. I like competitive cooking shows, but in US, it seems that every amateur knows how to present a dish like the chef of the 5-star restaurant would do, not to mention techniques that can not be put in the realm of amateurish cooking whatsoever. Here, they have a bit of leaning curve, they make mistakes, it doesn't always look perfect and what they know is within the realm of amateur's knowledge. 

Yes, that's more the "Master Chef" type of amateur. We have that in the UK too.

Previous seasons of GBBO have always had very competent, talented amateurs.  It isn't supposed to be a contest for incompetent amateurs - so, yes, I'm surprised when basic recipe and skills aren't displayed.  I do wonder if they've lowered the bar for more "oh noes!" moments.

 

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Actually, we had been wondering if the contestants on the US and Aus Masterchef shows get any training once they get on the show, because there seems to be a base level of ability (which I don't think we get in the UK version). In fact the UK version is 50x better than either the US or Australian versions anyway (as it's all about cooking, not human interest bullshit). It's pretty LOL-tastic that there is an ad for the Australian show with Nigella telling us it's the best cookery contest in the world. Wevs, Nigella! You know you wouldn't be invited to be a judge on the UK show as you're not an actual chef. 

Anyway, threadjack over...

Val's lame excuses make me cringe. I find it distasteful when people cannot hold their hands up to their own failings. So I loved that bit where she said some self-depracating comment and Paul immediately said, 'yep, I'd agree with you there'. :) 

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