FOOD
BAKE OFF: CREME DE LA CREME
BBC2, 9pm Bake Off’s nerdy cousin reaches its spectacular finale after what host Angus Deayton calls “nine weeks and two-and-a-half stone” of competition.
We’ve enjoyed Angus’s deadpan sarcasm throughout this show, featuring the largely stony-faced disapproval of judges Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin.
Two teams of professional pastry chefs – Liam’s military boys from England and Laurian’s French trio – lock horns over their most demanding task yet.
It’s a single, epic, eight-hour challenge, spread over two days, to create an awe-inspiring sculptural centrepiece as well as eight batches of mouthwatering desserts.
It must be enough to feed 100 people at the Great Hall of Firle Place in Sussex, hosted by Lord and Lady Gage (yes, Gage, not Gaga. That would be a whole different party).
Liam’s team decides on a military theme, while Laurian’s team goes for Christmas.
But they will need audacious originality and eye-popping artistry to win the exacting judges’ vote.
And as they serve their creations to friends, family and previous contestants, only one team will have earned enough points to win the crown.