French fancy! Breton woman who’s tipped to win this year’s Bake Off
APRONS on and mixing arms at the ready … meet this year’s fresh batch of Great British Bake Off contestants.
The twelve amateur bakers will be stepping into the tent and on to our screens next week.
And there’s already a favourite in this year’s series – a French competitor who has shared her impressive bakes online.
Manon Lagreve, 26, has posted pictures of her intricate creations, including a white chocolate dome filled with pistachio mousse and with a financier base, a white chocolate and matcha fondant, and chocolate eclairs.
Her tarte tatin recipe has even appeared on the Great British Bake Off’s website in a section where fans can submit their own dishes.
Hinting that the London-based software project manager, from a small village in Brittany, will go far in the Channel 4 competition, her best friend wrote on Instagram that she has ‘very big life changes coming up’. The friend wrote: ‘I’m so glad success has finally found her. It’s everything she has always deserved.’
Miss Lagreve learnt to bake from her mother and grandmother in France. She said she was taught to make everything from scratch, including bread, desserts and biscuits.
Meanwhile, ahead of the ninth series, judge Paul Hollywood has said the increase in the number of handshakes he gives contestants – his signature seal of approval – is down to rising standards. ‘I haven’t got softer, it’s just the bakers have got better,’ he insisted.
It will be the second series of the show hosted on Channel 4 after it moved from BBC One.
The new series of the Great British Bake Off begins on Channel 4 on August 28 at 8pm.