Bake Off: The Professionals
Pastry masters Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden on being TV’S most formidable judges
TUESDAY / C4 I’m always in awe of the stunning creations the pro pastry chefs dream up in this competition. We chat to judges Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden about series five.
BAKE OFF: THE PROFESSIONALS
NEW TUESDAY / C4 / 8PM / EP 1 of 10 / COOKERY
Forget Simon Cowell and Lord Sugar – fans of C4 spin-off Bake Off: The Professionals know that tough-talking patissiers Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden are TV’S most formidable judges!
The relentlessly tense competition, hosted by comedian Tom Allen and The Great British Bake Off 2017 favourite Liam Charles, returns for a fifth series this week, with Benoit and Cherish ready to scrutinise the spectacular creations of 12 pairs of professional pastry chefs.
Thankfully, though, when a nervous TV Times catches up with
Benoit and Cherish on the phone, they can’t be more warm and friendly as they tell us why this fresh batch of contestants are some of the best yet…
You’re pretty hard to please, but have the teams impressed you this year?
CHERISH: Yes, I think they raised the bar. We have a mixture of competitors from different establishments, ranging from those with their own patisserie to those working in a five-star hotel. I was blown away by some of the new techniques they brought in. Benoit and myself have really enjoyed seeing what’s happened.
Have any of the teams’ flavour choices surprised you? BENOIT: Yes, this year has been about different cultures and backgrounds and what I find amazing is that some teams brought things from their own home countries to the competition. So there were some interesting ingredients such as the betel leaf. I had never heard of it, seen it or tasted it before. It was discovery time for us! CHERISH: There were things I was intrigued by and different types of ingredients I never expected to taste in this competition, like Jerusalem artichoke.
In episode one, the challenge is to put a new spin on miniature classics – fruit salads and strawberry tarts. Why did you choose those?
CHERISH: You might think that a strawberry tart is easy. But I can assure you that the simplest thing is the most difficult to achieve.
BENOIT: When they are simply but perfectly baked, though, there’s nothing better than a fruit salad and a strawberry tart. Obviously, it is a competition, so we wanted them to reinvent them and take them to new heights and make something more modern. But with the fruit salad, one team used about 11 different textures and techniques and I think that was far too much! The trick is to keep what the dessert is visually, but maybe use different jellies or shapes to elevate it.
The first showpiece of the series is transforming pineapple upside-down cakes into towering creations. What can you tease about the other showpieces later in the series? BENOIT: The difficult ones are those with a chocolate-and-sugar
mix. Sugar likes heat and chocolate doesn’t, because it melts, so combining those two in a playful way was a challenge for everyone – you had to be creative, inventive and very technical. It’s the kind of thing that could easily go wrong. CHERISH: I liked the showpiece based on the world of magic, where some of the contestants dressed up and put on a show – it was so dramatic. And the finale of the series sees one of the best challenges we’ve had on the show – it was the icing on the cake!
Were there any disasters this year? CHERISH:
Yes, one of the showpieces smashed down to the f loor even before we judged! My heart went out to the contestants and I really felt for them. I just wanted to put on an apron and jump in to help them!
Oh, you’re a softie, really, aren’t you, Cherish?! And the chefs always seem to take critiques on board, don’t they?
BENOIT: Yes, we judge what we see – we don’t judge the people. The competitors understand that we are there to help them grow throughout their journey, so we stay friends afterwards. CHERISH: I agree. We like to be mentors, so that hopefully they pick up as many tips from us as possible. But we do understand that the truth really hurts!
Do you keep in touch with previous contestants? CHERISH: Oh, yes, we are still in touch with people like Mark Tilling [who won series one in 2016 with his team from Squires Kitchen], who we loved.
BENOIT: The world of pastries is a small one and so it’s easy to stay in touch. We don’t see each other every day, but if there’s anything we want to talk about, we can do so. From last year, I am still in touch with Nelson and Evaldas [who came third]; we see their families and their mates and where they are moving on to as well, which is good.
Have the two of you always been in agreement this year with your judgements? CHERISH: Yes, we always come to a conclusion and make the right choice as to who should leave or not. We think very carefully about every aspect of what they produce and analyse it.
BENOIT: That is the foundation of our work. If anything, the more we do this show, the more we understand what we like and what we don’t. Cherish has her style and I’ve got mine, but we respect each other’s opinion very much.