Meet 2021’s Great British Bake Off Bakers

As we shared in last week’s roundup (that post shares GBBO related cookbook news and more), Channel 4 has confirmed that The Great British Bake Off will return on 21 September. Netflix will stream the shows in the US three days after the UK airing. Accordingly, the first episode will land in the US on Friday, September 24th.

Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding all return. Paul has said, the standard of baking was “certainly the highest I’ve ever encountered”.

Below is a short blurb about each of this year’s bakers.

• Amanda, 56, is a detective with the Metropolitan Police in London. Her baking is influenced by her Greek-Cypriot heritage. She began to bake as a child with her mum and auntie before studying graphic design and working in advertising prior to landing in the police department.
• Chigs, 40, is a sales manager from Leicestershire. He just started baking seriously during the 2020 lockdown. He states he taught himself complex bakes and chocolate work by watching online videos.
• Crystelle, 26, is a client relationship manager from London. She, too. is a relatively new baker having taken on the craft about three years ago. She enjoys experimenting with flavours and textures inspired by her Portuguese-Goan-Kenyan heritage.
• Freya, 19, is a vegan psychology student from North Yorkshire and is the youngest baker in this series. She states she likes to be “unexpected” with her baking and is “a massive perfectionist”.
• George, 34, is a shared lives co-ordinator from London. George is another Greek-Cypriot baker who “has a keen eye for detail” and says his strength is his “creative flair”.
• Giuseppe, 45, is a chief engineer from Bristol who brings precision to his bakes which makes sense with his engineering background. This Italian-born baker inherited his love for baking from his father who is a professional chef.
• Jairzeno, 51, is a head of finance in London and moved from Trinidad 15 years ago. He obsesses over flavour combinations, particularly using Caribbean spices, and says “baking is like breathing” for him.
• Jürgen, 56, was born in Germany and moved to the UK 18 years ago. The Sussex IT professional and amateur trombonist started baking when he couldn’t buy his beloved German bread and had to fend for himself.
• Lizzie, 28, is a car production operative from Liverpool who, “according to Channel 4, may look like she’s frantic and messy on the outside, but she is usually calm and collected within”.
• Maggie, 70, is a retired nurse and midwife from Dorset. She is this year’s oldest baker. She may, however, be the most active because as well as baking, she loves canoeing, kayaking, sailing and going on adventures in her campervan.
• Rochica, 27, is a junior HR business partner from Birmingham who looked to baking when she was left unable to dance due to an injury. She states her weakness is “getting flustered and everything going wrong”.
• Tom, 28, is a developer for his family software company in Kent. Like others around the world, he says baking became “a welcome escape” during lockdown as he couldn’t partake in his beloved amateur dramatics and singing. Maybe Tom will sing for us in the tent?

Are we all excited for this year’s Bake Off? Darcie, Jane and I are!