The Great British Bake Off - Paul Hollywood

So… series 16 is in the bag. How would you sum it up?

I think this is an exceptional year. I think the standard of the baking has been phenomenal. I was really shocked – it was unbelievable. Proper borderline-professional from the off. And the bakers all bonded really quickly as well. Straight out of the traps, there were a number of bakers that made me think “Wow, we’re in for a good year.” And it is a really good year.

That makes your job more difficult, of course!

Yeah, it makes it very difficult. Which I don’t mind – it goes with the territory. I like judging really good things, and I find that, with the standard being so high, you have to look at the little nuances of the baking to see where the faults are. And you will find them, if you look hard enough. Which is our job. Nevertheless, I had to dish out a few handshakes this year! 

Do you think you judge differently to when you started 15 years ago? Do you hold the bakers to a higher standard?

No, the standard’s still the same, but the standard of baking overall since series one has got better and better. That’s not to take anything away from the bakers in series one, they were of their time, but the baking has improved. The challenges are a little more tricky. But they’ve all risen to the challenge and created things that have been really incredible.  

Do you think the quality of baking, nationwide, has improved since then? From high street bakeries to home bakers…

Yes, there has, undoubtedly. I’d like to think that Bake Off has played a part in that, but it would be too big-headed of the show to say it’s all down to us. But it’s played a major role in getting people interested in baking, especially during Covid times. I know that, because I get messages from people all the time telling me they’ve got into baking because of Bake Off. They might have started a cottage industry, making muffins, or whatever, and they’ve left their trade and changed their lives to get into baking, and they’re doing really well. I think Britain has always been a nation of bakers. I think there should be an international Bake Off challenge. There are versions of the show all over the world, from France to America, Italy to Israel, Brazil to the Middle East. There should be an international one to see who is the best. I think Britain would challenge most of the others, that’s how good they are now.

Tell us about the bakers this year.

They come from all sorts of backgrounds, but I have to stress how well they did right from the start. I remember seeing the first signature and thinking “Wow, this is going to be a nightmare to judge.” Because obviously you’re going to lose a good baker every week, because they’re all good. And you don’t want that to happen. And I don’t want it to happen when people have failed, or burnt something or haven’t planned their time correctly. I’d rather they go home – and I think they would rather go home – being able to say “That’s the best that I’ve got, and unfortunately there were other bakers who just did better.” But this year in particular was the hardest judging for people to go. 

Do you ever learn stuff from the bakers, like unusual flavour combinations?

Unusual combinations, yes. General baking, no. Sometimes the tools they use – I’ll see someone using let’s say a rolling pin with bands on the end so it won’t go any thinner – things like that are a great idea. Normally I’d just rely on the fact that I’ve been doing it for years, but when I see little baking toys coming through, I think “That’s a great idea.” Things like that always surprise me. 

Of course, you kick off with Cake Week, including a cake landscape showstopper. What do you look for off the bat?

Well, first of all, it’s got to look like what they set out to do. When you set challenges like this, it’s got to look like what it’s meant to. Say you’re doing a self-portrait, or a portrait of a sports hero, it’s got to look like what you set out to make. If they say “We’ve got a rolling mountain scene with a river running through” and you look at it and you go “Sorry, where are the mountains?” that’s a problem straight off. It’s about design. You can’t just be a baker now, which probably wasn’t the case 16 years ago. Now you have to be an artist, you have to be an engineer, you have to be a baker, you have to be talented in all sorts of facets of baking to get into the tent, and then be able to sustain yourself through the series. I think when you’re doing things like scenes, it’s about the artistry. And some of the toys people came up with – how you can produce grass with these little manipulators, pushing fondant through to create the grass. It’s almost like Wallace and Gromit with the clay animation, it’s that sort of skill level. Because we’re on series 16, we’re getting bakers who are also artists, we know that from their application forms. You look at them and you think “Are these guys pastry chefs from the Dorchester or something?” They are that level. So it’s always great on the first week to get a foundation. It’s always sad for the first person to leave as well. They have to go, and they’ve only just got into it, and they’ve been looking forward to it for months. 

There’s a new week – Back to School. Does that just involve endless slabs of stodgy sponge served with lumpy custard?

No, happily not! The first challenge is a sort of tray bake which you associate with schools – stuff like flapjacks. I used to live right next to school, so I’d go home for lunch, so I never endured the school dinners at the time. I remember primary school having the rice puddings and the coconut cake, or a Swiss roll with custard. They’re the classics that I remember, and that’s what we’re trying to emulate with school week. 

What were your favourite weeks?

I love bread week. I always find bread week the hardest for the bakers to get right. Bread is easy to make, but difficult to master, and I’m looking for people who can understand the difference between a cake-bread and a bread-bread, where you can flake off the layers and it melts in the mouth and it’s beautiful and you’ve got big airholes. They’re the bakers I’m looking for. And we did have a few this year. The technical challenge in bread week was glazed doughnuts, and that’s my favourite thing to eat in the world. I was very happy this year. And it’s actually quite tricky to do properly. Getting the structure right in the doughnut, getting the frying right, getting the shape right, and then the overall dunking to get the crust on the outside right. Fantastic!

You referenced the handshakes earlier. Did you dole out as many as ever during the series? 

I don’t think so. I dished them out when needed. I don’t think it was a record year. I held back on a few. There were certainly a few handshakes, but I think I’m a bit meaner with them nowadays. 

It has been extremely hot during filming. Did that create problems?

Yes and no. Yes because we get hot, and the bakers get hot. When you’re filming in bright sunlight, cameras get affected by sunlight in the background, you’ll get a glare that you have to tone down. So we often put blackouts down to dull the sun, and that stops the wind getting in to cool you down, so it heightens it even more. It gets really hot in the tent. I don’t think it affected the bakes that much, but it certainly affected how we all felt. It wasn’t very comfortable, in 30-plus temperatures with no wind. But the baking side, a cake is hot, bread dries quicker, so it wouldn’t be as much of a problem as you might think. Fortunately we didn’t do chocolate week at that point. 

They’re long days on set. Are you exhausted by the end?

We’ll do 12-hour, 13-hour days sometimes. I’ll be there at 6am and might not leave until well after 7 in the evening. It is pretty full on. But there are breaks in between when we can go back to our huts and chill out for a bit. I say ‘chill out’, but the huts are like bean-cans on wheels – the beautiful old trailers, but it’s like sitting in an oven. I had a little fan up there, for a breath of wind coming through. But we get down time, time to relax, and I think you need that on those long days.

Do the four of you relax together?

Yeah, we often do. There’s little reclining chairs we all sit in. It was like a little tenement block. We’d all congregate together, almost as if we were all hanging out our washing. It felt a little like that. So we’d sit there and chat, and put the world to rights. 

You tend to keep your emotions under wraps, but does it get harder to send people home as the series goes on?

As long as Prue and I are comfortable that it’s the right person leaving, then no, I don’t get too emotional. Sure, it’s sad that someone has to go, and I feel sorry for them. But if we’ve chosen the right person, I won’t feel bad at all. It’s just their time. And often the bakers say “Yeah, it’s getting a bit too hard for me now.” Most of them admit that. The ones who just don’t have a good week and go home get quite upset about it – understandably, because they’re more frustrated than anything else. So it’s sad when they have to go, but it’s part of the process, unfortunately. 

The final always, always seems to be a really emotional affair. Was that the case again this year?

Yeah, it was. There were about 700 people there this year for the final. More than we’ve ever had. And the weather held off as well, so we had a dry one. We had everybody there, and it was amazing. It’s always a great atmosphere. You see over the years the way Bake Off has grown into this cult thing every year, and it’s a real family thing. And there aren’t very many family programmes still around. Whether you’re 5 or 95, you can watch the show and get into it. And you can watch individual shows, you don’t have to watch the whole series, and still feel part of it. I think the music is part of it, the weather often plays a part. It’s very British, with the bunting and the tent and everything else. And I like that feeling of old school. I lived in an urban area, but I used to go on holiday to these beautiful villages with a cricket pitch on the village green and tents up with a church fete going on. And that’s basically what’s being harnessed in the tent. 

It's a show that feels like it could have been made in the 1950s…
Yes! And anyone from the 1950s watching it would recognise it as a very British thing that we’re doing. 

Can you give us any clues as to the opening sketch this year?
Yeah, it was a good one this year. [Laughs to himself]. It was very good this year. All I’ll say is I think a little bit of CGI is going to be involved.

Finally, if you had to choose one bake from the entire history of The Great British Bake Off as your favourite, what would it be?
Key Lime Pie. Key Lime Pie is a favourite. It’s sharp, it’s citrus, it tastes beautiful. It’s a cross between a cheesecake and a custard. It’s got cream on it. For me, it’s the ultimate pie/tart. It’s just delicious, and every time we do it I get excited. We have done pizzas before, and I love a pizza, but the problem is, I got frustrated when we had pizzas as a challenge, because they get cold. You see them all coming out of the oven, and you think “ooh!” And then, about an hour later, after they’ve taken all the shots, it’s cold. So there are certain things I love – glazed doughnuts is up there – but I think Key Lime Pie is the best. 

A Love Production for Channel 4