Self-raising TV star with all the ingredients to claim the crown
SUCCESS STORY OF BAKE OFF
VIEWERS will tonight learn whether a Leicester lockdown success story will end on a triumphant note.
Chigs Parmar attempted his first-ever bake, a sourdough loaf, in the middle of the first coronavirus lockdown.
Just 18 months later, he is in the final of Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off, against the incredibly talented Giuseppe and Crystelle, having won over both the judges and the British public in doublequick time.
His anti-gravity cake succumbed to gravity in week one – despite being described as “delicious” by Prue Leith – but by week four he had been voted the show’s star baker.
“I’ve only been baking 12 months,” he admitted to Prue and fellow judge Paul Hollywood on the first episode, with Prue offering some words of comfort that he could easily make it all the way.
She said: “The first Bake Off that I was a judge for, the winner had only been baking for six months. It’s not necessarily a handicap.”
Chigs has proved her point, despite a tense semi-final which saw him come bottom in the technical bake challenge.
But his skills have earned him the goodwill of his fellow Leicester bakers.
Danielle Jarvis, owner of Oh So Bakery, in Hinckley Road, said: “It’s really nice to see a Leicester baker go so far in this competition. The bakers across Leicester are all part of a community that keep in touch with each other and we’ve been excited by Chigs’ success.
“It’s nice to see attention being brought to the talented bakers we have in this city, and it’s even more impressive that he started in lockdown and has only been baking for a small amount of time.” Rob Percy, who runs Cake Origin, in Queen’s Road with his wife, Tracey, is also rooting for Chigs in tonight’s final.
Rob told The Observer: “He’s obviously doing incredibly well to go from zero to the point he’s at now, where it will probably change his life.
“His story really resonates with me because I was never a baker, although I was involved with the business.
It’s nice to see attention being brought to the talented bakers we have in this city
Baker Danielle Jarvis
“It was only really in the initial lockdown of last year that I was able to practise my skills as well, and it’s benefited him in the same way.”
The Great British Bake Off final is at 8pm tonight on Channel 4.