shandy

Thank you Marcus Wareing for showing me that there is nothing wrong with the format. It just needs a good week to get back into me loving GBM again. All the three chefs were teary eyed sensitive souls, but what a relief to have no snark, genuine appreciation for each others' efforts, and a sense of shared hardship facing the utter terror of Marcus. Who goddammit is ageing well. Aren't many men close to 50 who can melt 17 year olds on twitter. Michael is a true original. He doesn't make comfort food, but you'd certainly remember it. If he ever leaves England North East, Manhattan would appreciate him. I think, given the reaction on social media this is a break out moment for him.

Wow, this was nostalgic. The vol au vents/vols au vent (don’t want to be upsetting the French) took me back to all those 90s weddings with lobster newburg/lobster salad in puff pastry. The alternate filling was something like condensed mushroom soup - shudder. And chicken à la king, c’mon Alvin, you catered for the VFW in a former life. It did look so much nicer than the swill I remember. He was breaking my heart, but I couldn’t ride the drama every week. He made half way, and that is an achievement. I’m puzzled by Flora. She is not TV natural like sweet Martha from last season but they are quite similar – obviously from families with sophisticated European food knowledge, but whereas Martha giggled, warbled and gossiped, Flora is brooding. Paul treats everyone like a dumb baker’s apprentice. I’m not sure whether this makes him value the women less, but he spent most of season 5 ripping into Nancy. My favorite La Hollywood moment is still the increasingly desperate pawing of her microwave nuked fruit bread to find something wrong. Those fla.. things. Yes Paul, you worked in Cyprus. We get it.

I think PBS really could capitalize on the success to float another american version. We have an old season but it is good to share with friends and family - my sister now wants an angel cake pan - Sandra Lee kind of ruined them for her, but the baking show makes her want to try them again. It's strange, I feel instantly invested in season 4 - the folks really seem nice to each other - it's great wind down entertainment.

Having looked at the recipe for the Angel Food Cake on the PBS page, typical sensible Mary having the yolks of those dozen eggs be used for the lemon fruit curd! Gotta love the woman. I like that her technicals are usually things she thinks people could try at home,

Gasp, Michael is amazing. I was watching a Christopher Guest movie - even the shots of his Zug Island/Gary hometown with that foundry fuming in the background. I have no clue what he was trying to do, but a gin sour from a drinking tube, yes please.

Now this is a great bunch of bakers, I love Ali being such a stun bunny. Poor Toby, isn't there competition for these places? Did he wander in from the street? Or did the producers want a dollar store Hugh Grant. Deborah's hairline is everything ... I reminded my mother about the show and she wasn't impressed by any of the angel cakes. Her version would need canned oranges on top and alcohol. Gak... Yay for science, Rob's chocolate work was great.

I've had it with this show! I'm tired of seeing snarkmeister jock types get through to the final. The irony of the boys club crushing female entrants when the banquet is for the Womens Institute has all the hilarity of a Utah Mormon Acapella Group in blackface. Pru and the occasional guest judge have to remind the panel what they are looking for and even then rarely. Oliver and Matthew have their own obsessions which seem to have very little to do with selecting dinner courses for 100 women representing a very worthy institution. I'll watch to the end, but feel it really has nose-dived.

Yay, Emma's doing the technical bakes again this year. She is by far my favorite GBBO blogger - I love the ingredient porn. http://emmaforth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/technical-thursday-pauls-arlettes.html I didn't know where best to put these but she's catching up fast: http://emmaforth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/technical-thursday-pauls-baguettes.html http://emmaforth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/technical-thursday-marys-frosted-walnut.html http://emmaforth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/technical-thursday-marys-spanische.html I really should give her a comment!

I almost did Tamal's happy dance when Alvin survived. I liked Ugne but like Sandy last week nothing was going right. The women this year have been felled like corn. Last year Kate, Chetna and Martha provided a warmth that is a little missing this year, it's a shame. I respect the show for making it all about what's presented week by week, and Mary and Paul have said in interviews the day the producer advises them who to put through is the day they stop judging, but it's hard when my guys crash and burn.

CEEBEE, in the uk I noticed a lot of students had upright toasters in their dorm rooms, whereas, at least in my college, toaster ovens occupied a similar niche, but offered a lot more flexibility. Both totally against dorm rules! My college days were accompanied by the ping of a toaster oven but nachos or grilled cheese was the way to go, and I'm talking about the poverty driven kraft slice version. Dry toast was for when i had no money and had come off the meal plan, not a treat! Nowadays I do sometimes have open face toast as a snack, with cottage or cream cheese, and lox, instead of a bagel. I also like yeast extract on toast, but prefer vegemite to marmite. My young nephews love nutella on wheat toast, although my sister will only allow it on the weekends. Aren't those oblong pitas for stuffing Döners (gyros)? I'm guessing that's a hint to their popularity in kebob/kebab crazy Northern Europe.

Thank g-d it's back, I really missed it. The Northern ireland accent is a trip - it's very close to some American Southern accents imho. Very strong meat flavors seem to be 'in' this iteration. I'm not loving this consommé obsession, but I suspect that may be because I've probably never had one that has been made to exacting standards, and if I did go to a michelin starred establishment, I would probably be ordering something else from the menu. I wasn't surprised at the result. I've noticed the chefs will mark higher if an element is perfect and everything else falls to crapola - the three who rule don't do that. The young guy's plate did look a little ordinary, although he was cocky, but Danni's seemed special. I liked that she was keeping to the WI brief, but also completely rooted in her locality. I could totally see that as part of a high end Paddy's day celebration. Brown or Molasses bread is pretty well known in the Irish diaspora and Boston, but like everything, some is great and some is appalling. This looked another level.

I ... cannot ... breathe

My sister and I would eat our own bodyweight in sponge toffee on trips to Clifton Hill, on the Canadian side of the Falls. Makes me smile that carney candy is a gourmet ingredient. I used to buy violet crumbles and crunchies from an import store ... but that was when my waist was a smaller number than my inseam :-S

Poor Sandy, she was so funny, but such a bad day at the office. I knew she was toast when the camera zoomed in on her worried looks. Alvin is living dangerously. I wonder if he has the breadth of classic techniques needed. Interesting that Flora may well have been snuffed out if Sandy and Alvin had not had disasters. I'm warming to Ugne, she takes flavor risks but has a very methodical approach. Nadiya boiled cheap soda into syrups. I was shouting at the screen, wrong version! You want the one where La Hollywood mixed it up with the Latina. Just once I would have loved to see a Bourdain food snobbery reaction...but it looked amazing. Mary, Mat and Sandy were practically psychedelic with their colorful clothing choices - they already were in a tent, I wanted someone to start banging a tambourine and declare a 60s style happening. What does Tamal have to do? I'm getting tired of Ian's smug face. It's time for curly to take the prize. LMAO, I sure wasn't with Sue - a sniff of pomade and she would be a drag king! And don't even think Mat will be leaving. I need to see him in more plaid.

No GBM this week! My early morning fix denied. Twitter tells me this is due to Athletics. Socialized Television - it's like a parallel universe.

Thanks for the kind giving of context - it really wasn't pleasant. It appeared again with veggies in the dining hall from time to time, and that's when I would have to do a Döner Dash down to the Tottenham Court Road - a great memory of London days.

Mary and Pru (Great British Menu) were on British Radio 4 (Very NPR) together with some other seniors talking about changing trends in british food. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b066tk29 I was fascinated.

*resists the urge to comment on faggots* The boy did good! I was convinced Adam was toast. I think Phil was genuinely shocked he lost. Surprised that the judges differed from Tom and still put A through when two of his courses were near disasters. That retired home ec teacher was a tough sell. I doubt her students got much past her. On the phone to his mom after the reveal, I just wanted to bottle his accent and sell it. I do love Pru so much. One look at that fussy lamb-mint consommé as a sipping herb tea, and she was like to hell with that, I'm using it for gravy.

Athena, are scones more well known in Canada? Some the of best I've had were in an Irish place in Niagara-on-the-Lake (though expensive!). When I came back to the US I was disappointed in the bread and cheeses. Even though I was a pretty poor student in London and then in France (Rennes) I could buy some crusty bread and sharp cheese, together with pickles for a reasonable price- I felt like a Lord.

Mispronunciations - Can I vote for Worcestershire Sauce? Bay Staters get this right, but very few other people do. Food differences - Gravy - in England brown and mysterious, in the US gravy is sauce . A neighbor always called her special red ragu her secret gravy. I once had fries/chips and gravy from an English 'chippie' in York. I was expected a gorgeous poutine-like rich meaty flavor, instead it was hideous salty brown goop. I had nicer gravy in England, but was always suspicious of it afterwards until a taste test had been conducted.

Oh ... my ... days Stephen's dessert was an amazing concept ... in the hands of a more skilled chef perhaps it could have been the stand out of this season. I liked the notion of combining barfi (which I find too sweet) with a fruit sauce but it seems the flavors just weren't good enough. The two rhubarb dishes just seemed forgettable. It will be interesting to see the chamber results tomorrow as I felt Tom was disappointed. Wales hasn't been a great week.

Boogie, you need to see his Who Do You Think You Are episode – where he gets to use his *cough* superb French! Much nicer man than the bake off makes him out to be, although anyone who owns a labrador gets a free pass in my world view.

Bless Alvin, I'm lucky to know several filipinos (nurses like Alvin) and their celebrations are never knowingly under-catered! Soda bread is about the only bread I can make without disaster so it was great to get so many ideas. I snorted with Mary (i can smell the baking powder) at Ugne's chocohorror but she was quick to say she was wrong - although I'm still not tempted to try chocolate. Dorret was so anxious I think it leeched into everything she did. She should have done something like Mat - which required no great artistic talent but was a clever take on the the brief. I'm beginning to see why Ian is an in-demand travel photographer - he has creative 'flair'. Was fascinated by the elaborate blueprint for the lion from PrisonPaul and I honestly did not think it would work out as well as it did. I think at some point Flora 'Yes I have made baguettes before' is going to peel away a latex mask to reveal Martha Stewart. Nadiya is quickly becoming my hijab wearing superhero - her personality shines through the screen. I like that muslim girls in the UK have taken to social media saying how much it means to see her. Tamar seemed under-edited this week, although I suspect he will become a powerhouse. They did something similar to Nancy in the early weeks of s5. I love Sandy's calm and quirky demeanor. When I read she worked in child protective services I thought, yep, she knows there are worse things in the world than poorly sculpted bread.

I don't know about Janet but I really struggled with Jordan last season. It was a real test of values not to judge his appearance. I'm glad this show challenges me in this way - he was a sweet soul.

This obsession with Pork is getting old. Indian tapas would be the kind of thing I would seek out. A scotch egg and onion pickle, maybe on a Potterhead get together... Some papadum crackers with those chickpeas would have given you your textures Tom. I'll save commenting on the Wales menus till I can properly marathon on the weekend but judge Tom shows how you can be friendly, funny and kind but also very clear eyed when it comes to the judging (take note Emily the ice queen from last week). The young chef and his mother were great - 'Ow's it going alright?' 'Alright, I'm in 'ere'. It reminded me of that sweet show set in Wales, Gavin and Stacey. I also loved that she got emotional one minute and the next saying it needed salt. She was clearly right as that was commented on later. I friggin love big Tom tho - looking at old clips he was one major unit, so glad for his health he's dropped so much. He clearly has a Ramsay like reputation but is also such a kind man – the young chef looked so starstruck, and then teary when he got a good score. His restaurant looked like it was nothing fancy and in a backstreet area, so he automatically becomes my fave. Not least for almost taking an eye out on the oven door - that would be my kind of error.