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| Author |
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Maris
Member
03-27-2002
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 6:14 am 
I think Nigella is being pretty good but what I have learned from watching her first two episodes, it really is not that easy being a judge and eating on camera. Nigella is a bit clumsy putting deserts into her mouth in a flawless way. Pretty funny. I am liking these contestants, especially Mo. Tom is a second favorite. I am relieved at the last contestant who was eliminated, she just seemed so awkward and way out of her element.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 7:09 am
She was quite the odd duck, wasn't she, Maris?
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Maris
Member
03-27-2002
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 8:57 am
Yes.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 10:18 am
I made it through the first episode only, before falling asleep. Maris, I was thinking the same thing about Nigella and her eating the samples. Somebody must have said something to her, because about 2/3 through, she was trying to cover/block her mouth when taking a bite.
I pulled her book out that I have. It's "How to Be A Domestic Goddess - Baking and The Art of Comfort Food".
I don't bake and I made the Boston Creme Pie recipe and it came out excellent. I even made the Victorian Sponge for the cake layers. Victorian Sponge sounds so Fancy Dancy. Lol!
She makes it easy because in her directions she'll add a sentence of why you do something, or she'll say something like if you're caramel sauce comes out grainy, you probably didn't let the sugar dissolve completely when you mixed it, and the cold from the refrigerator hardened the crystals.
Simple things like that, makes like a friend is walking you through the recipe.
And here is something to note that she wrote in her cookbook:
quote:DESSERTS
When I was a restaurant critic, I was once teased for talking about "the pudding" and then proceeding to describe some elaborate, light, and most definitely unpuddingly French confection. But pudding is the word I stick to: can't help it and don't want to.
Regardless of style or substance, if it's intended for the last, sweet course, it's pudding in my book -- in America, it's given the name dessert.
Just thought I'd put that there in case she's always saying pudding while she's eating a 3 tiered cake, or a batch of cookies and we are sitting there going "huh?"
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 10:30 am
Oh, and I love the contestants, too. I love how they are always kind to each other.
I hate the American shows where its all fake laughter, shrieking, and forced to say things like, "OH, they're going down!" And other stupid, competitive stuff like that.
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-21-2001
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 12:53 pm
Agree about Nigella and her eating, but I am loving his season. I especially am enjoying Gary, Paul's doppelgänger. I'm a bit bummer there aren't any Scottish or Welsh contestants but this is a lovely, kind group! As Grooch said, it's much nice than US shows!
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 4:40 pm
I'm going to watch the 2nd episode now. I just want to say that I am intrigued by Mo and hope he keeps doing well. And I hope the lady from the Caribbean stays for a long while, i want to see what types of flavors she does with her baking.
I like them all so far, and it will be sad each week when one leaves. So different from big brother where we are all rooting for somebody to go. Lol! Such a nice change of pace.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Sunday, October 04, 2026 - 5:07 pm
So, they have to make 30 cookies AND decorate them? Who ever heard of decorating a cookie? Unless you're putting icing or sprinkles on it. And it has to be chewie on the inside AND hard on thevoutside? This is going to be a LOT of work.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Monday, October 05, 2026 - 2:20 am
Pudding is a meal, not a dish or type of dish, so yes, if you had some cookies after dinner that would be pudding.
I like the new style technical, where they have a few minutes with what they’re supposed to make, rather than just a written description. There’s been a lot of criticism of them using dishes that no one’s heard of, yet they expected everyone to produce an identical dish, so this stops that being a problem.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Monday, October 05, 2026 - 6:45 am
I do too, Kitt. I always thought that was rather unfair.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Monday, October 05, 2026 - 10:24 am
Is this the first season they are doing this?
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Monday, October 05, 2026 - 11:35 am
Yes, Grooch. In the blind bake, they never got to see an example of the item, just got a written description. I thought that was unrealistic and bizarre.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Wednesday, October 07, 2026 - 2:10 am
The blind bakes did start off being very everyday things that they really should know about and know how to make, but as the seasons went by it got to be some pretty obscure stuff and it all got silly.
This week was another new twist on the technical, that worked quite well too.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Monday, October 12, 2026 - 7:09 am
New twist, this week they had three challenges suggested by viewers. Pretty fun.
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Maris
Member
03-27-2002
| Monday, October 12, 2026 - 5:06 pm
They were pretty good. The right person went home. There a are a few lightweights who don't measure up to the rest of the group.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Monday, October 12, 2026 - 6:15 pm
That's true, the right one did go home.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Sunday, October 18, 2026 - 4:26 am
This week had a weird technical where no one understood what they wanted. Reading up on the aftermath, it seems most of them knew a flatbread was typically large and thin, but they had no idea what to do with the grapes, and if they rolled it thin with the grapes the grapes broke through the surface. That and the dough contracting all the time back into a smaller circle.
It did seem overall though like none of them were particularly good at bread, though.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Sunday, October 18, 2026 - 7:15 am
Yeah, the other technicals had examples this year, didn't they? This one was a disaster.
Tough week, but right person went home again.
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Kappy
Member
06-28-2002
| Sunday, October 18, 2026 - 11:33 am
I feel like the number of good bakers is extremely limited this time. I feel like they spent too much time checking off boxes and not enough time checking how much experience they have in baking.
I also don't like the format of the technical. To have to guess all the measurements just from looking at a finished product would require experience way beyond most home bakers. Gary, Mo and Tom are the only 3 impressing me so far. I'm usually impressed by the majority right off the bat. Maybe the rest will surprise me at some point.
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Maris
Member
03-27-2002
| Sunday, October 18, 2026 - 12:36 pm
I totally agree Kappy. There are bakers that I wonder, how the heck where they picked? They were weak from the start. I like the old technichal style. Give them their piece of paper and go from there. I agree, a lot of weak players, you know from the jump who will be at the end.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Sunday, October 18, 2026 - 2:49 pm
What if they had chopped up the grapes into small pieces? Maybe then they could have rolled it out thinner.
Does anyone know what they will be cooking next week?
And the poor lady whose mother passed away. I wonder if she will come back next week.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Monday, October 19, 2026 - 2:00 am
There’s some controversy over whether the instructions they were given specified to halve the grapes or not as there are a couple of versions of Paul’s recipe online, and one uses halved grapes. Both recipes take more than an hour, per users, you have to roast the grape mixture for 20 minutes then let it cool completely, and you have to mix the dough for 5+ minutes then let it prove for 15 minutes. Even if you did the dough while the grapes are in the oven, you’re at about 30 to 35 minutes in when you can fill the first bread. Then for the eight pancakes the cooking time is 24 minutes total not including assembly and moving between each one. It does seem like a bad dish to use for a technical.
Nikki did withdraw from the show.
This week is Dessert week.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Monday, October 19, 2026 - 7:28 am
Honestly, I still don't think it's fair for the technicals not to have an example. It gives those with experience with that item an advantage.
It's hard enough if you don't know the procedures, measurements, idiosyncracies - and it's enough to have to figure that out. IMO.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Monday, October 19, 2026 - 9:50 am
Particularly when you only have an hour to do the whole thing.
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Monday, October 19, 2026 - 10:52 am
The thing about bread is the proofing. Bakers have zero control on how long a dough decides it needs to rise. And when you only have 1 hour, you're really cutting things close. And it was pouring rain at times that day. That extra humidity might have caused the dough needing some more time.
Anyway, here a link to the recipe. It says you're supposed to slice the grapes. If they had a bit more time, someone might have figured it out and the others could have copied him.
Paul Hollywood’s Blue Cheese & Roasted Grape Flatbreads
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Monday, October 19, 2026 - 10:54 am
Ha! Ha! Ha! Paul rated the recipe easy.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Monday, October 19, 2026 - 1:37 pm
This is the original Paul Hollywood recipe from 2012, the one that says the grapes should be halved. It also says prep time TWO HOURS not one!!
https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/files/stilton-grape-flatbread.pdf
It's not exactly the same, but as you can imagine, there are conspiracy theories over what the bakers were told compared to the slightly revised recipe that's now on the gbbo website.
I do think it would be quite easy, it's just the timing that mucked it all up. And the lack of instructions of course  .
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Saturday, October 24, 2026 - 2:46 am
Anybody watch it yet? I loved the trolleys of puddings. I want to go to a restaurant that has one.
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Maris
Member
03-27-2002
| Saturday, October 24, 2026 - 4:11 am
Grooch, I watched. It reminded me of this coffee house in Dublin, Bewleys. Growing up we used to go to Bewleys all the time and the waitress would wheel around trolley's filled with deserts. they left the trolly by your table and at the end of the meal you were billed for the amont of pastries you picked from the trolley. Bewleys was one of my favorite places.
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Egbok
Member
07-12-2000
| Saturday, October 24, 2026 - 2:24 pm
Grooch, I found the current Great British Baking Show on Netflix. I think it's 3 episodes in and I'll start watching this weekend. I did peek into the 1st episode and was sorry to see Prue leave but was surprised that Nigella replaced her.
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Kitt
Member
09-05-2000
| Tuesday, October 27, 2026 - 3:10 pm
In the UK we've just watched episode 6, Pastry Week, tonight, so if it works how it used to, you'll see that on Friday on Netflix.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, October 27, 2026 - 4:46 pm
I did Grooch, they all seemed to struggle a bit... maybe it was having to make 3 different items?
I'd love a place that served a trolley of desserts too!
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