The baking continued on The Great British Bake Off this week with the contestants taking on Bread Week for the Bake Off theme.
As usual, one of the bakers in the Great British Bake Off 2022 line-up was crowned Star Baker, but in a Bake Off twist, no contestants were eliminated this week.
It comes after Rebs and Abdul missed out on Week 3 due to being unwell, so the judges felt it wouldn’t be fair to send anyone home.
Here, reigning Bake Off champion Giuseppe Dell’Anno shares his thoughts on Bread Week, specifically why “pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza” despite James’s creation, and who should have really won Star Baker after Janusz received the accolade for a second time.
Watch Giuseppe share his verdict on Bake Off’s Bread Week below – and keep watching at the end of each video for more from Giuseppe!
Giuseppe on Bread Week
Bread Week is always my favourite week. Bread and savoury are my favourite, so I always look forward to watching what the bakers come up with on the show. I must admit that this year’s episode did not feel very bready – pain aux raisins, is that bread? The producers have to come up constantly with entertaining ideas and, I mean, after 13 years the options must become fewer.
The one interesting thing I learnt this week is that pizza can be shared – who knew? The judges asked for two share-sized pizzas, but I have to say share-sized pizza never belonged to my vocabulary! I’m never going to share my pizza with anybody less than a few grilled succulent steaks on a barbecue, for example. What do you do – chop pieces and distribute around? Why should that be acceptable for pizza? It’s not going to happen in my household. We are all selfish pizza eaters!
Favourite moment
I have two favourite moments from this week. The first is Carole referring again to her big lucky pants – you must love Carole! I hope she stays as long as possible on the show – everybody needs a Carole in their life! Another favourite moment is Janusz blow-torching an egg. It was honestly iconic. It was wildly over the top and perfectly in line with the wackiness on the show.
However, apart from how surreal it was, in a way it proves (pardon the pun) the attention to detail that he makes. He comes across as light-hearted and funny, but he’s a meticulous fella. He has been scanning the texture of the egg to the most minuscule detail and it paid off. The whole breakfast on pizza might not have been a success as a whole, but he managed to cook an egg to perfection in the hostile environment, so kudos to him!
Favourite bake
My favourite make is going to be Carole’s pizza. I mean, if you like cheese like me it’s going to be one of your favourites. She unfortunately made the mistake that so many people do when making pizza – she went overboard with the pizza. The best pizza is a relatively thin crust, so there is only so much it can hold – and especially when it comes to wet toppings like melted cheese, less is more – but overall it was a great choice of flavour and one I’ll try.
Sweet dreams are made of cheese. #WednesdayWisdom #GBBO pic.twitter.com/zxoPaFpUyx
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 28, 2022
“Pineapple does not belong to pizza”
My least favourite bake, well – this is not going to come as a surprise to anybody, but I just cannot stomach pineapple on pizza. It’s not a matter of being snobbish about pizza toppings. I liked Kevin‘s combination of figs and halloumi, but pineapple just does not belong to pizza and it does not taste good. He got good words from the judges, which goes to show how professional they are. I’m not sure I would have done the same!
“Carole needs to be careful!”
Who needs to be careful? Well Carole does! She was in the bottom three this week, and she has been a couple of times in the past. I just don’t want to see her go. She’s such a nice element in the tent. I hope she stays in there as long as possible, so please, Carole, be careful!
Syabira for Star Baker!
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I would have loved to see Syabira winning Star Baker this week. I’m pining to see her getting the accolade. She made a terrific smorgastarta, that was beautifully decorated and with a mouth watering flavour combination. Her pizza wasn’t bad either. But her technical let her down. She was fifth and Janusz was first, which certainly gave him lots of brownie points. I’m very happy for Janusz to be ‘Star Caker’ again, but come on Syabira, I want to see you being Star Baker.
Tip of the week: Take your time
When it comes to pizza, I’d say: just take your time! Pizza is made with very simple, poor ingredients. But the most important ingredient of all is patience. These days when you’re craving for pizza, you can just go on your phone and order pizza in 30 minutes, but good things come to those wait. I make my best pizzas when I use very little yeast and let the dough prove for longer. This guarantees a very fragrant crust with a very lovely texture. I’ve included the full recipe for a simple pizza in my book if you want to know more.
Giuseppe answers…
As no one went home this week, what do you think it means for the competition? Are the judges getting soft?
On this week, Abdul and Rebs didn’t take part in the episode as they were obviously unwell. It must be horrible to hear you’re not going to take part after all the effort you put into it, but I knew as soon as this happened, nobody was going to go home. This is a deliberate choice on the show, although the absent bakers get an unfair free pass to the following episode. I am 100 per cent sure in the next episodes the baker’s performance from Bread Week will be considered when deciding who to send home.
It does feel like the show ends on a cliffhanger when this happens. It’s almost as if there is something missing from the whole picture. Often in the past, the idea of keeping all the bakers in throughout the series and just picking the winner out of 12 in the last episode has been suggested. We suggested this to production last year actually but I don’t think it would work. As bad as it is to send people home, when it doesn’t happen, the whole narrative of the show just doesn’t work.
The plot twist to end all plot twists on Bake Off! #GBBO pic.twitter.com/Ren6Nmhu1R
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) September 27, 2022
Are Abdul and Rebs at an advantage or disadvantage now?
It’s difficult to say. I think the next few episodes when there are going to be a couple of people sent home from the same episode, the performance of the past weeks will be considered as a whole. So whether this was an advantage or a disadvantage depends on how good they are at making bread. If this was one of the strongest points for them that they were looking forward to then obviously they are at a disadvantage because they haven’t had the chance to demonstrate this. If that is not the case, then it might have been actually a lucky call for them not to take part in one of the hardest weeks on the show.
A Week in the Life of Giuseppe
So this week has been busy as usual. I was at a food festival at the weekend, where I met up with lots of Bake Off contestants from previous seasons, which is always a pleasure. And I have been working on a secret project with other Bake Off bakers, and this will see the light of day in the next few weeks, so watch this space!
I’ve also been busy preparing the videos for some recipes taken from my new book, and I will be sharing this with my followers in the coming weeks, so if you don’t do it already, this is probably the best time to start following me on Instagram.
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To make your own show-stopping bakes at home, Giuseppe’s debut cookbook, Giuseppe’s Italian Bakes (Quadrille, £20) is available to pre-order, out 13th October.
The Great British Bake Off airs on Channel 4 on Tuesdays at 8pm. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Entertainment hub for the latest news.
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